


love, you and me-we're every cheesy movie and I can't help but fall

by dianna44



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Bad Jokes, F/M, Famous Harry, Famous Louis, I'm also a shit updater so, M/M, Musician Harry, Mutual Pining, Paparazzi, Sexual Tension, actor! louis, closeted stars!, harry is 1/3 of 1D, idk I don't take it too seriously, it's just me using their names idk, lots of them - Freeform, louis is pretty flamboyant i love it, management probs, niall is an irish singer who knows everyone, slow build sort of?, this entire thing is ridiculous tbh i mean, this was completely self-indulgent
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-12
Updated: 2015-12-18
Packaged: 2018-03-07 06:27:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 27,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3164702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dianna44/pseuds/dianna44
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Louis's a hotshot actor. Harry's 1/3 of One Direction, biggest boy band in the business. They meet during the Brit's after party and Louis' drunk in a ball pit, but all he can see are curls. (Also, Niall knows everyone.)</p><p>Basically a completely self-indulgent au because I really want to see the two of them go through a whole lot of angst and see cute things happen in public whatever sue me.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. chapter one

**Author's Note:**

> Okay yeah, I'm not SO proud of this first chapter? But we'll see, okay?

           

**◊ chapter one ◊**

 

 

 

It was not Louis’ fault that Eleanor Calder’s fans hated him. Really. It was not.

It was his management’s fault. Blame them. They’re the ones who believed that no gay actor would be as popular as he is, and of course after bringing up Neil and Ian, he’s completely dismissed. So after his recent “break-up” with Eleanor Calder, his beard and actually quite a lovely person, he now has many anti-fans who hate him for destroying Eleanor’s heart or something like that.

He thought that _maybe_ the hate would die down a little since it’s been _a month_ but apparently he underestimated the part-time actress/full-time model’s fans. So here he is, at the Brits because his lovely pal, Niall Horan, a quite popular Irish singer, invited him.

And of course, the first thing he hears from the fucking paparazzi is, “Louis! Did you know that Eleanor got a new boyfriend! How do you feel about that?!”

Louis really just wants to tell them to fuck off and say that he actually likes sucking cock, but he just smiles and says, “I’m happy for her. She deserves the best.” Which, she does, so that wasn’t technically a lie, now was it? The paps don’t seem to care and continue to pester him with questions as he smiles for the cameras on the red carpet, but he doesn’t say anything else. He walks into the Brits, looking for Niall because fuck, he invited him and he needed someone to talk to. He’s surprised that he finds him pretty quickly. Well, Niall found him. Okay. Whatever. He wasn't the best with directions. Or looking for people. Or even on that note cooking. Hm. He should probably get that checked. 

“Louieee!” Niall shouts, waving his arms up in the air for him to see. Several people look his way, and he was pretty sure that was _Ed Sheeran_ who smiles at them, but anyway, he walks over to Niall, who immediately bear tackles him.

“Hey, Ni,” Louis laughs as they break apart. He can already smell the alcohol on Niall. Figures.

“I haven’t seen you in forever, mate! I saw your last movie by the way! It was great! Loved it! I watched it at least five times!” Niall praises and Louis grins.

“Yeah, I know. I saw your tweet about it. Hey, thanks for inviting me,” Louis says, as Niall starts to drag him off to god knows where. To sit down, maybe? Niall laughs, obviously drunk off his arse already.

“No problem, Louieee! I don’t have any other friends who aren’t singers anyway! Besides… _maybe_ I only invited you to show off the fact that I’m friends with LOUIS TOMLINSON!” he shouts and Louis brings his hand up to his mouth to shut him the fuck up. Yes, people are definitely looking at them now, but all Louis can do is laugh, because _fuck it, he’s famous too._ He's already drunk off power. Dear lord. 

They sit down and more people pile in. Many recognize Louis and say hello, which only makes Louis greet them back and smile. _Appearances, Lewis,_ Louis thinks idly to himself. 

However, when Louis spots Eleanor in crowd, attached to her new boyfriend, he had forgotten that maybe technically, they don’t talk anymore and went up to her to say hello. Eleanor, the smiles that she is, perked up and introduced him to James, her companion. They talk normally for a bit, Louis laughing at James' jokes because _wow, he was funny_ _,_ but when he notices the looks people are throwing at them, Louis realizes his mistake. He glances at Eleanor and he's struck with the realization that Eleanor knew he had made a mistake as soon as he said hello, but was just too kind to kick him away. Louis excuses himself with a duck of his head and Eleanor and James laugh fondly as Louis stumbles away.

Niall was waiting for him and he just smiled and started talking to him again. He did kind of just leave Niall there, didn’t he? He's a piss poor friend. 

And then, the Brits are starting and Louis and Niall shut up. The lights dim and then they’re off.

◊◊◊◊

Louis is very very drunk.

The Brits went by in a daze. Taylor Swift won something and tripped going up the stairs. Niall, bless him, won something too, and when he accepted his award, burped into the microphone, not once, but _two_ times, which nearly made Louis shat himself. One Direction won _lots_ of things and one of them—the curly-headed one had been in the loo when they were announced the second time—and Adelé sang just as wonderfully as Hozier.

Everything was quite lovely and lots more happened, but Louis can’t really remember anything except the fact that he is in a fucking _ball pit._

Sometimes, as he stumbled around the after party looking for Niall, who had gone off the god knows where, he forgets that he is famous as well. It's actually quite nerve-wracking. He made conversation with Ed Sheeran for the first fucking time and Louis felt that he was heaven because he was talking to _Ed fucking Sheeran._ He thinks he accidently made Lorde trip over her dress, but he can’t really remember. He also may have walked straight into an interview between the official backstage interviewer and Ariana Grande, but maybe not? He doesn’t really know, but he does know that he is a goddamn _ball pit,_ and he _loves_ it.

He doesn’t really do much while in the ball pit, just kind of sits there, tossing back and forth a dark green ball and trying to catch it because to him, he thinks he’s practically juggling. Louis nearly vomits from surprise when he sees Beyoncé and Lady Gaga talking to Ed and One Direction like the pals they probably are (even though he’s technically met all of them besides One Direction).

They’re talking about the performances. At least he thinks so. He doesn’t really know even though he’s sitting in the ball pit that’s really just a few feet from them, but it’s so loud so maybe he can’t hear as well. Yet, he still strains to listen by exaggeratingly putting up his hand to his ear and giggling softly. Okay, maybe he wasn’t giggling so softly because all six of them look over at once.

“Is that…Louis Tomlinson?” the gorgeous dark-skinned one asks. Also _really_ , whose quiff is really that perfect? Louis thinks his name is Zeus or something? He doesn’t even try to remember. He continues to toss his ball around while staring straight at them.

“Blimey, he looks drunk off his mind. What’s he doing in the ball pit? Wait, what’s he doing here? Isn’t he working on like three movies right now?” the one who looks the most buff asks. He doesn’t know. He knows that he looks like a buff puppy though and suddenly, that’s just too much for Louis to handle as he starts laughing so hard he falls face forward into the balls before him. Oh yeah. He  _is_ working on three movies. Hmmm.

Then he feels hands and they are ohhhh so incredibly warm.

“You alright there, mate?” a deep voice asks and Louis briefly thinks that the voice reminds him of sex. Hmm. He looks up and sees the curly lad who was in the loo for his award.

“Toilet boy!” he exclaims as he feels arms under his armpits start to lift him out of the ball pit. He looks over his shoulder and sees One Direction and Ed standing there, looking at him in…amusement? Louis is not sober enough to clarify facial expressions. Harry laughs at him and Louis frowns because he did not say anything funny.

“Toilet boy, huh? Well okay. ‘M just gonna call you Ball Pit boy from now on,” Toilet boy says, grinning. Louis laughs because _fuck, that was funny._

“That was funny,” he says stupidly and Toilet boy laughs again. Toilet boy walks him over to the rest of his band and Louis drunkenly grins at them. “I’m Brad Pitt’s boy,” he spills out and then he giggles because oops, that came out a little differently than he expected. Toilet boy next to him suddenly starts laughing so hard and Louis bites his lip. Louis is very very drunk. Puppy boy and Zeus are looking at him with wide eyes and Ed just starts chuckling.

“So you’re the silly drunk, Tommo? And you seemed so on top of yourself when I met you a while back,” Ed teases.

Louis can only stare petulantly before jutting out his bottom lip and saying, “Tommo? Only fans and Ni call me that! So which are you?! Niall in disguise or a fan who goes whoosh whoosh?!” Apparently that’s too much for Toilet boy to handle as he bends over, laughing so hard that he could be mistaken as having some sort of internal attack. Louis frowns down at him. “It’s not nice to laugh at people, Toilet boy,” he scolds, but Toilet boy just keeps laughing.

Louis pouts.

They all laugh at that and now Louis is upset with all of them because _excuse them, he is world-class actor._ At least, he thinks he is. He can’t really remember. Louis smiles drunkenly at them once again before giggling hysterically. He feels a hand on his shoulder, and _oh, it’s Toilet boy’s because it’s warm_ , and he smiles giddily. That is, until he’s bent over and dumps all the alcohol he drank onto _fucking Ed Sheeran’s shoes_. At least, that’s what he remembers.

He doesn’t really know. He passes out after that.

◊◊◊◊

Louis Tomlinson has enough dignity to admit that he’s only screamed from being scared a few times in his life, but when he wakes up and finds a naked Niall Horan sprawled onto of his chest, he screams so loud, he bets he’d win an award just from that. Niall’s head whips up and he looks dazed as he scrambles around before promptly, falling off the bed. What even?

“Niall fucking Horan, what the _hell_ are you doing in my bed?” Louis screeches at him. Niall looks around as he rubs his head.

“Uh… I don’t really remember, mate,” he says, still rubbing at his head and yes, he’s going to blame Niall for bringing attention to his _own_ head because _fuck_ , it’s a killer.

“So, just to clarify, you don’t feel sore or anything? Cuz I don’t soo…” Louis says, trying to make sure that he _didn’t_ have sex with Niall last night although he doubts that even in his inebriated state, he’d be that dumb.

Niall makes a show of dramatically rubbing his bum before grinning and saying, “Nah. My bum feels like how it did yesterday.” Louis rolls his eyes, but lets a sigh of relief escape from him. Niall, of course, hears him.

“What’s with the relieved sigh?! Did you think that could have happened?! Mate, you aren’t… _crushing_ on me, are you?” Niall exclaims teasingly. Louis gives no response except for the pillow he throws and the brisk, “Put your fucking pants on” he throws over his shoulder as he goes out into his hallway. However, now Louis Tomlinson is bothered because 1) how did he get home and 2) he woke up without being called by someone, which brought up the topic of _where his phone was._ Niall comes bouncing down the stairs as if he _didn’t_ just wake up in Louis’ bed completely naked and Louis glances at him.

“Ni, did you happen to see my phone up there?” he asks. Niall shakes his head.

“I’ll call you, Tommo. Wait,” he replies, grabbing his phone from his pocket and quickly calling Louis. Louis stops breathing for a second, listening for the sound of The Fray, but he hears nothing.

“Fuck,” he mutters, walking around the house as Niall follows him, calling repeatedly. His house is big so it could be anywhere. Louis sighs. “Niall, can I borrow your phone for a while? I’m just going to call and see if it’s somewhere in this maze of a house. You can eat or whatever. I don’t care.” Niall happily nods and hands over his phone and Louis calls again. 

The fourth time Louis calls, he’s in one of his guest rooms, and he’s already given up on finding it, but then he hears the dial stop ringing.

“Hello?” comes a slow drawl of a voice that sounds vaguely familiar.

“Hello?!” he practically shouts into the phone because _yay, he might actually get it back._ “Do you have my phone?” Louis regrets saying that almost as soon as it leaves his mouth because well, it’s a bit obvious that the stranger _does_ indeed have his phone.

“Uhm…oh huh, you’re right. I wondered why I woke up to The Fray…figured the boys just changed the ringtone on me,” says the phone stranger. Louis’ about to say something but the stranger goes on. “Wait… _fuck_ …where’s _my_ phone?” Louis just sort of stands there for a moment as he listens to the stranger shuffle around, obviously panicked. He hears the stranger’s breath again and then he asks, “Uh…do you happen to have my phone then?” Louis sighs, and heads back up to his room, taking his time, now that he knows his phone is safe. He goes into his room and sure enough, on his bed, there lies a phone that isn’t his and that he did not notice. _Found it._

“Yeah, mate, I got it for you. Wait, who are you anyway?” Louis asks finally. The stranger laughs and Louis just waits.

“Oh sorry, man. This is Zayn. I’m in One Direction? We met last night. Wait…this _is_ Louis Tomlinson, right?” Louis thinks back to last night, but so much of it is fuzzy so he can’t really remember. He vaguely remembers meeting a Zeus though…Louis shakes his head. He doesn’t know.

“Yeah. How’d you know?” he asks.

“Oh, just your voice, I guess. It’s sort of unique, you know?” Zayn says, and Louis tilts his head. He’s got a point. Louis’ been told that a number of times by adoring fans or even his own family when he tried prank calling them that one time in uni.

“Oh. Okay. So…what are we gonna do about this phone thing? I’m not sure how free I am today, but I could try fitting you in? Wait, no, you might be busy too, are you?” He hears Zayn give a short huff on the other end.

“No, I’m too busy. Sorry, mate. I got an interview with Liam sometime today, but hey, Harry’s sick from last night, so could you just give it to him? I’ll give him yours to give to you. That sound good?” Zayn breathes into the phone, and Louis thinks he hears a shout in the background.

“Yeah, sounds great, mate. Is he free all day?” Louis asks. He briefly wonders what that’d be like. He hasn’t been sick in such a long time. Maybe he should fake. Okay wait no. Not a good idea that. 

“Uh, yeah. I think so. I mean, I’m pretty sure Hazza’s just sleeping right now. I don’t know, but I know he was super sick yesterday and said he’d take today off. He’s at home, I think,” Zayn replies. Louis nods.

“Okay, well, if anyone calls on that phone, could you just tell them that they need to call my second phone? Everyone who’s actually important has my second phone. I’ll just need to go find that though….” Zayn laughs.

“Haha, alright. Do you want Harry’s address? So you can go pick it up?” Louis says yes and after Zayn tells him the address, they’re saying their goodbyes. Meanwhile, Louis is just trying to remember if Harry is the curly headed one or the other one. He’s pretty sure Zayn was the dark-skinned Adonis but he can’t think too straight through his hangover. Louis looks down at the address in his hand and mentally tries to calculate how long it’ll take to get there.

He fails as soon as he yawns because his head starts to pound again and really, Louis needs medicine. Before he _dies_. Louis knows that that was a bit overdramatic but he was an actor so he had an excuse. Now he just needed to find his second phone.

◊◊◊◊

The house was huge. Well, it was huge as it pretty much equaled the scale of Louis’ house and Louis’ house was _huge._ It was spectacular though and Louis really wanted to see the interior design. He always had some sort of admiration for different people’s houses. He rang the doorbell as he stood on the porch, admiring the garden around him with a small smile on his face. 

The door didn’t open. Louis rang it again. He waited two minutes and there was no answer. By this time, Louis was getting sort of irritated. He reached and grabbed his second phone and dialed his number. Zayn had told him that Harry would have his phone so hopefully, he’d hear the phone ringing. It rang three times before Harry picked it up.

“Hello?” Harry asks, and Louis stops short for a moment because _whoa, he sounded incredibly sick._

“Uhm, this is Harry, right?” he asks. Louis never did get to manage to see if Harry had been the curly lad or the other one but he figured he’d get to see now.

“Uh,” Harry coughs, “Uh yeah. This Louis?”

“Uhm yeah. So, I’m outside your door and…yeah,” Louis says. He feels bad because he probably woke Harry up and yeah, he feels bad.

“Oh you are?” Harry coughs out. “Shit, sorry. I’ll be there in a moment.” He hears the phone click off and Louis just sort of awkwardly shifts to the side. It’s another minute before he hears locks on the other side unlocking and then the door is whipped open.

Louis wishes he had some sort of warning from somebody about how attractive Harry is because _fuck, this just isn’t fair._ Even more so, Harry’s _shirtless_ and yeah he’s the curly lad and Louis tries incredibly hard not to linger too long on the tattoos that are gracing the boy’s heavenly body. _This isn’t fair._ Louis regains his composure after a quick second and smiles at Harry.

“Uhm, hey. _Sorry_. I don’t even think I want to know how long you were out here, it’d only make me feel bad. I’m really sorry,” Harry says and he sounds so genuinely sorry and Louis wonders why.

“It’s completely fine. Well I’d like to formally introduce myself if you don’t mind.” He puts out his hand and Harry takes it, shaking it. “I’m Louis Tomlinson.” Harry smiles shyly and Louis thinks it’s the most adorable thing he’s ever seen and then he notices the _dimples_ and Louis wants to melt.

“Yeah, okay. I’m Harry. Harry Styles. We did sort of meet last night, you know,” Harry says. Louis squints at him.

“Yeah, I know, mate, but I was drunk as hell last night and I don’t really remember any of it,” he admits, grinning sheepishly. Harry laughs and leans against the doorway. Louis wants to fuck him or being fucked by him, Louis doesn’t necessarily care.

“You were hilarious, don’t worry. Although it’s strange to hear you referring to me as something else besides “Toilet boy” not that I really mind….” Harry is teasing him. Louis knows it, but _Toilet boy?_ How in the hell did he come up with that? Harry’s coughing brings him back to the present and he stares wide-eyed as Harry keep coughing for a few more seconds.

When he stops he smiles at Louis again before adding, “Sorry about that.”

Louis shakes his head. “Don’t apologize for coughing. It’s fine.”

“Do you want to come in?” Harry asks and Louis stares at him. Is this boy even gay? Louis doesn’t know. He does know that he  _just met him though, calm down, Louis._

“Yeah, sure,” Louis agrees, walking in as Harry backs up. He looks around, admiring the interior. “I have a thing for the interiors of houses.” Louis wants to hit himself as soon as the words leave his mouth, but Harry smiles at him again and Louis thinks it’s magical. Louis realizes he’s staring when Harry coughs again. He blinks rapidly and looks away. _Fuck._ He tries wiping his sweaty hands on his pants and then he feels the outline of the phone and remembers why he’s even here.

“Oh yeah, here’s Zayn’s phone,” he says, reaching into his pocket and pulling it out. Harry takes it and thanks him. He walks over to a countertop that begins his kitchen and picks up Louis’ phone from it. He hands it back to Louis and Louis starts to fake sob. He’s an actor, sue him.

“Oh my precious! I’ve missed you! I’ll never let go of you again, my love! I promise!” He clutches it close to himself, cuddling it to him and Louis smiles down proudly at his feet as he hears Harry start to cackle. Louis thinks he’s won the world that is…until Harry’s cackling breaks off into coughing. “Shit, are you really okay?” he asks.

“Yeah, I’ll get over it. Just a bit of coughing, really. I think I’m just going to go back to sleep when you leave,” he assures him. Louis mocks offense.

“So, you’re already kicking me out, Harold my sweet love? How could you? I thought we had something,” he teases and Harry smiles again. Really, Louis wants him to keep smiling “You can stay…I mean, if you want. It doesn’t matter to me. Well, I mean it does. I’m not saying you being here is unimportant. Wait no. I’m not saying that you being here _is_ important. Shit. I’m….” Louis watches in amusement as Harry continues to babble on. “You can stay if you want is what I’m trying to say,” Harry finishes lamely and Louis smiles softly. That is, until he coughs again.

“I’m going to make tea,” Louis announces. “You have tea in this wicked house of yours, I’m assuming?” Harry nods and walks into the kitchen. Louis follows him and watches as he reaches up and grabs it from a high shelf that Louis would never have been able to reach. The motion, of course, grants him the perfect access to watch Harry’s back muscles strain and yeah, Louis wants to have sex with this adorably sexy boy _very_ soon. He stops short on his thoughts when he remembers that Harry might not even be into guys. Fuck. _You’re getting way too ahead of yourself, Lewis,_ he scolds internally.  _Besides, remember the fact that you just fucking met him…well soberly, but still._ Louis scowls and of course, that’s the exact moment Harry turns back around, this time with several boxes of tea in his hand. Harry frowns.

“You okay?” he asks and Louis instantly replaces his scowl with a smile.

“I’m fine. Now, you go to some room and I’ll try to find you in a few minutes. Wait, you want to watch a movie? You don’t have to, of course. I’m just suggesting. Fuck, just do whatever.” Now it’s Louis babbling and he wonders how he got to this. He was about to make  _tea_ for one of the world’s most famous and hottest boybanders. Harry laughs, nodding.

“That sounds great. I’ll be in the movie room. You can just come find me, I suppose,” Harry says as his lips pull up into a teasing smile, and Louis _really wants him to be into guys_.

“Just leave, peasant. I shall make tea. You get a movie prepared. Remember, I _will_ judge you based on your movie tastes as I am an actor myself. Choose wisely, young sir,” Louis deadpans and Harry laughs loudly as he exits the room. Louis smiles to himself, pleased with the reactions he’s getting from the cute singer.

When the tea is ready, he realizes he needs cups and he looks around. He finds them in a cabinet that, thankfully, he could reach without making a complete fool of himself in front of himself. Louis is proud. He pours the tea and then is faced with the realization that he doesn’t know how Harry likes his tea. Damnit.

“HAROLD!” he shouts. “HOW DO YOU LIKE YOUR TEA!” He hears Harry’s laughter from another room and Louis is about to kick himself from all of this ridiculous smiling he’s doing.

“NO SUGAR! JUST MILK!” Harry shouts back, and it was at this moment that Louis reconsiders everything because _really? Milk?_ He wrinkles his nose in distaste as he opens the door and grabs the milk to pour some in in Harry’s tea.

 _Disgusting_ , he thinks as he watches it mix with the now ruined milk. He prepares his own and sets off to find the young singer. He finds him pretty quickly on a part of the floor that was _made of pillows._ Next to Harry was a hard surface, in which Louis assumed was for drinks and such. Behind Harry’s head was a giant wall of pillows to support him and Louis wonders why he doesn’t have this in his house. Well, he will soon.

He sits himself next to Harry, surprising him and hands him his tea.

“You, dear sir, are a tea ruiner. That’s what I’ll call you from now on. Tea ruiner. Because that’s what you are,” he states as he sips from his own perfect tea. Harry snorts.

“Ruiner is not a word, _Lewis_ , but I suppose it is better than Toilet boy so I’ll accept for now until the next time you make up another ridiculous name. You do know that you’re now expected to make up a new name for me each time we meet now, right?” Harry looks at him pointedly as he takes a loud sip from his tea. Louis pouts, but on the inside he’s sort of freaking out because _next time._ He doesn’t let it show though.

“Let’s just hope that next time you won’t ruin the very aspect of everything good and perfect with _milk_ ,” Louis states simply. “Now, let me judge you, young peasant, on your choice of movie.” Harry smiles happily before coughing again. “Do you need medicine?”

Harry shakes his head. “I took some earlier. It should last for a few more hours. I’ll take more then. Now, let’s let you judge me, huh?” He turns on the television and as soon as Louis sees what it is, he wants to hit him. With love and kisses. Fuck. What’s wrong with him? Louis shakes his head. _Might not be gay, remember?_ He still lets a smile slip through.

“I see you have excellent taste, young sir. Now let it commence.” He leans back and sets his tea down as the movie begins. He cannot wait to say his every line that he had in this movie just to annoy Harry. That’s what he gets for putting one of his Oscar-winning movies on. Harry laughs again before pushing play and settles back as well.

Louis’ pretty sure he gets a crush on Harry as soon as he mocks Louis’ imitation of his character’s girlfriend and Louis honestly doesn’t think he cares that he just met him.

This happens, right?

He decides he'll care later on.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, Louis's not dumb. He can figure out that he likes Harry pretty quickly because fuck, who wouldn't tbh? Comments are love. First chapter sucks. It will get better :)


	2. chapter two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hiiiii guys. So I'll be trying to update this in 1 week-2 week intervals, which for me, is very soon. I'm just so busy with so many other things and I'll try. If I'm late, don't hate me!!
> 
> Also for the texts. 
> 
> Italics= Harry  
> Bold= Louis  
> Underlined= Ed 
> 
> Also, because I'm an idiot, I didn't make Niall a part of One Direction? Originally, I was going to but??? idk what happened? whatever. hope you enjoy :) Also, forgive any mistakes! I don't have a beta (not necessarily looking for one though). :)

 

**◊ chapter two ◊**

 

 

After that day with Harry, Louis and him have been texting nonstop.

It’s ridiculous, is what it is but Louis doesn’t care. It scares him sometimes because he still doesn’t know what Harry’s sexuality is and he doesn’t know how to tell him what his is, and even if by some strange miracle, Harry did happen to like boys as well, he didn’t know if he even liked him like that.

Also, even if he _did_ happen to like him like that, neither one of them were out yet so that alone is a problem. Both of them would have management to deal with and Louis knows he should not be thinking about this because _he doesn’t know Harry’s fucking sexuality._

Maybe he could be the one to instigate it.

He could just nonchalantly come out to him on their next movie night and let that be done.

Yeah…no. He decides against that plan as soon as he imagines a scenario where Harry stops cuddling into him because he’d think it was awkward. Okay so a definite no.

Maybe he could just let it slip? Louis can think of _several_ scenarios in which that goes completely wrong so he decides against that one as well. Or _maybe_ , he could just continue whatever he had with Harry and just let what happens happen?

Louis decides that that’s probably for the best even though he doesn’t necessarily like it.

The text from Harry distracts him from these awful thoughts of his and he smiles as he reads what it says.

            _did u know that Zayn called me a skunk-eating rat for accidentally touching his quiff today??? Xxx_

Louis smiles and quickly types out his reply.

            **that’s what you get for touching a masterpiece, you skunk-eating rat. :)** **Xxx**

            _ur mean, lou :( Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (I still love you though)_

            **you’re dumb but you have your curls and your dimples so it’s okay ;) Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (I love you more, skunk-eating rat)**

            _:) :) :) :) :) yay Xxx_

Louis shakes his head fondly. Yeah, Louis’ completely gone for him. Maybe he was gone for him as soon as he met him at the Brits.

He had asked Harry what had happened, but Harry just laughed and infuriated him by bringing his finger up to his lips and whispering, “it’s a secret, Lou”. Louis wanted to kick him and then kiss him.

When he asked Zayn (after he finally got to actually meet the rest of the boys officially), Zayn told him that after throwing up on _Ed Sheeran’s_ shoes after being found in a _fucking ball pit_ (Louis wanted to die from embarrassment), he passed out. Apparently though, he woke up almost right away and practically attached his body to Harry’s leg telling him that “he had to go to the restroom too, Toilet boy and that he shouldn’t hog it”.

Louis nearly attacked Harry the next time he saw him for allowing Louis to not know what he had done that night. Harry just laughed it off and said, “I said you were hilarious, Louis. I wasn’t kidding.” Then, after that, Louis was sent home with Niall, who had completely stripped in the car according to Harry’s driver and attached himself to Louis, in which the driver managed to help them back into Louis’ house and put them on the bed, ergo why Niall was completely naked.

Niall was just lucky there weren’t paps around to capture _that_ particular spectacle. Or maybe the Irish singer could’ve learned his lesson about ditching him at Brits’ parties to go and get drunk, leaving Louis alone to get drunk _by himself and throw up on Ed Sheeran’s shoes._

Louis got Ed’s number though and after a quick text of **“sorry, mate about the shoe thing. I was drunk off my mind :)???”** in which Ed replied with,  “no problem, mate!!! you were awesome! we should hang out soon. just us and the boys :))). Louis wasn’t sure if he had meant One Direction but he assumed so, and before he could ask, another text had come in from Ed.

           that’s 1D by the way. wasn’t sure if i clarified taht!!!

**sounds good man. when though?**

           wasn’t sure. our friend nick is holding a party this wknd? we can chill there.

Oh no. Louis had realized then that he knew only two Nicks in his life and both of them were assholes. He hoped he didn’t know this one. He had just hoped it wasn’t Grimshaw.

            **sure! which Nick though?**

            grimshaw! u know him? he’s a radio host for bbc radio 1. he’s pretty cool. harry’s pretty close to him though. 

Louis had sighed. He had the worst luck in the world, and _of course_ Nick was close to Harry. Of _course._ Because why the hell not, right?

It wasn’t like he _hated_ Nick, but Nick had some things about him once on that stupid little radio show of his and it wasn’t exactly nice. So, he did have a legitimate reason.

And if he hated him a little more for being close to Harry, then whatever, right?

He had texted Ed back saying he’d be there and after texting Harry the news, he’d gotten a cute “ _yay_!!!! _”_ in response and Louis decided then that he made the right decision.

He, of course, regrets this so-called “right decision” as soon as the door on Saturday is swung open to reveal Grimshaw, smiling widely.

“Hello, Tomlinson! The lads are in the living room. Make yourself at home,” Grimshaw says. Louis is an actor so he knows that Grimshaw is acting out these pleasantries towards him, but since Louis is an actor, he also knows how to force out a smile and say, “Hey thanks, mate. Good to see you.” _Not._ Grimshaw just nods and Louis walks in, deciding to ignore him for the rest of the party (even if it was his whatever). 

He walks around for a few seconds, refusing to admire Grimshaw’s house and before he can fully realize that he’s found the rest of the band and Ed, he’s attacked by curls and the smell of strawberries.

“Hey, Haz,” he says because yes, they are already that close and Louis sort of wants to marry him so he can actually call him whatever he wants.

“Hey, Louis,” he smiles into his shoulder. Louis feels giddy. He is giddy. Louis has several many awards under his belt and he’s getting giddy over the smell of strawberries that is coming from Harry Styles who is _hugging_ him. He pulls back and smiles up at Harry. Harry beams back down at him and releases partially, throwing his left arm over Louis’ shoulder and walking him over to the couch where the other boys watch in amusement.

“Oi! Should we expect wedding bells soon?” Niall teases before Harry and Louis can sit down next to each other. Both boys blush and before Harry can say anything, Louis decides to cut in.

“Why yes indeed Horan. It is next Saturday, but you’re not invited if you don’t bring food and _at least_ four famous people, and I mean _super_ famous,” he explains easily. Harry smiles again and it’s basically just wonderful. Oh and also, Louis’ trying to regain the ability to breathe.  Niall just snorts and leans back more. Louis rolls his eyes and looks back at Harry, who’s still smiling at him. Louis swears those dimples will be the death of him. He pokes at them, pleased when Harry’s smile grows larger.

“Haven’t really seen you in a while, huh, Haz?” Louis says.

“Hey, Louis?” Harry asks, a wicked smile replacing his smile. Louis gets a tiny bit worried.

“Yeah?” he asks.

“What do you do if you see a blue banana?” he asks, an official wicked grin on his face. Louis rolls his eyes. If this were anyone else but Harry, he would have left them all alone to say their bad jokes to themselves.

“Okay, what should I do, Harry?” Louis asks.

“Try to cheer it up,” Harry says, grinning.

“I hate you,” Louis groans against Harry’s shoulder. Harry laughs.

“What did I say to my bananas when I left my house today?”

“No, Harry,” Louis says, absolutely done with him. Harry’s still wearing that shit-eating grin. Louis hates him.

“I’m going bananas!” Harry exclaims, breaking into laughter. Louis stares at him, charmed completely but won’t admit it. Acting skills come in handy here.

“Are you absolutely done?” he asks, refusing to smile. Louis lives a hard life, he really does. Harry’s still smirking at him, the little shit.

“Guess I am. We’re performing tonight by the way,” Harry says. Louis’ surprised. He didn’t know that.

“You are?” he asks.

He knew all of One Direction’s songs now.

After he pretty much fell in love with the curly-headed idiot, he, of course, being the respectable actor he is, stalked them during his breaks when he should’ve been running lines. Not that that matters. He’s a great improviser, and most of the times, the things he says are even better than the script so the movie producers just decide to run with it.

He wasn’t a _huge_ fan of their music in their earlier career, but he could tell as they kept singing, their albums became progressively better. He told Harry as much when he first admitted to listening to every song they’ve ever sung (he left out the part where he listened to too many “Best of Harry Styles” videos), and Harry’s reaction was the best.

He had been _beyond_ embarrassed. So, of course, he’d make the best of this moment to tease the boy beyond belief. “Are you going to channel your inner pop star and escape the hipster thing you’ve got going for you?”

“Not a hipster, Lou,” Harry singsongs, already used to telling Louis this. Louis rolls his eyes because _yeah, right._

“Mate…not to bring up some news but,” Louis leans in so they’re eye to eye (Louis refuses to admit that he’s standing on his toes), “have you seen the fedoras you wear in those ridiculous black and white photos of yours? Not hipster my _arse_.”

“Well we wouldn’t want to bet against _that_ beauty, would we?” Harry cheekily responds, which makes Louis pause.

Wait, what? _This_. _This_ right here was what made Louis insane and absolutely positive that this boy was _not straight_ , but he hasn’t _said_ anything! Louis wants to kick him in the balls. With his face. That doesn’t even make any sense.

“I feel like this is the beginning of a soft-core porno,” Zayn suddenly says, distracting Louis from Harry. Louis rolls his eyes and finally decides to sit down. Harry follows his lead and Zayn stands up abruptly. “Good thing I’m not going to be around to watch the two of you start to dry-hump on the couch.” Zayn walks off and Harry and Louis go silent, unsure about what to say next because _well, that was quite forward, wasn’t it?_

Harry laughs awkwardly and Louis can see the other three boys looking at them in his peripheral vision. Oh right. It’s peripheral because he’s staring straight into Harry’s soul, or so it seems. Louis joins in with Harry’s awkward laughing and sits up straight.

“So…Ed, sorry once again about the shoes, mate,” Louis says, once him and Harry had stopped “laughing”. Ed just looks amused. Louis wants to know why, but he doesn’t say anything.

“Ah no, it’s fine, really. Got them in the wash and it’s all settled,” Ed says, smiling. Louis nods. _Harry hasn’t said anything against all the gay jokes so that has to mean something, right?_

“So, Louis, you’re working on some movies now, right?” Louis hears. He thinks it comes from Liam.

“Uh yeah,” Louis responds eloquently. Harry laughs and that brings Louis’ attention back onto him. Fuck. _It’s just…it’s not like Niall and Zayn have been the only ones to call us out on flirting with each other so… that has to mean something, right? Plus, it’s not like Louis’ gaydar is broken. Louis likes to think he has talent in calling people out._

“What’s that like?” Liam asks. Louis blinks. He needs to stop thinking about Harry’s assumed sexuality. It wasn’t doing anything good for him.

“Busy, I suppose. A little boring at times in between shots. It’s also a little difficult to fit in all my scenes in my schedule. After today, I’ll be a whole lot busier because I got a major scene in two of them, and I’ll have to work around that,” Louis explains easily, already having told his management team and agent this. All three of them stare for a second before Niall starts to laugh.

“Fucking hell, Louis! Don’t make it sound like it’s all that. I’ve seen your Snapchats,” Niall exclaims. Louis frowns at him, annoyed yet endeared.

“Excuse you, Niall, but my Snapchat is the only thing to entertain me whilst I am waiting in an invisible cue to say twenty lines in one scene.” Louis crosses his arms and raises an eyebrow at Niall, who only laughs harder.

“Yeah, I could tell you that by your many angled shots of cute boys who were quote on quote “not allowed to be on set because it distracted you too much”,” Niall says, giving him a pointed stare. Louis glares at him for a second before he truly realizes what just came out of Niall’s mouth. Did he just…oh _shit._ Louis glances at Harry who’s just looking at him, one eyebrow raised.

He’s about to say something but then fucking Grimshaw comes in and exclaims, “People are showing up by the minute, boys! Want to get prepared to play?” Louis hates him. Liam coughs, a little too loudly for Louis’ liking and smiles widely at Nick.

“Sure. Coming, Harry?” he asks Harry, who just sort of nods, still looking at Louis. Louis bites his lip. He is going to _kill_ Niall and then suspend the Irish-singer over his house like a banner. Wait no. He’d probably go to jail if he did that. Well then, he’d just bury the body instead. See? Compromise.

As soon as they leave, Louis turns to look at Niall who’s laughing away talking to Ed as if he _didn’t_ just out him in front of well everyone in the room. He walks over to him and punches his arm.

“Ow! Wha—Louis? Huh? Why did you punch me?” Niall asks, rubbing his hopefully now bruised arm. Louis scrunches his nose in distaste. How dare he ask him that when he probably just ruined his life.

“He didn’t know, Ni!”

“Know what?” Niall looks confused and that irritates Louis more. Louis huffs, exasperated.

“He didn’t know that I was gay, Niall,” Louis states. Louis can feel Ed’s stare, but he ignores him. Besides, he knows for certain that Ed doesn’t care. He’s talked about it in interviews and such, which Louis _totally_ did _not_ stalk when he was in his Ed phase. He watches Niall’s face transform from confused to horrified and then to scared confusion.

“Oh shit, Lou. I’m sorry…I thought he knew! You two are so obvious and all cute and such and…shit,” Niall finishes, looking freaked out. Okay maybe Louis can’t kill him, but he can make him feel guilty. Okay yeah maybe he can’t even do that with Niall looking at him like that. Louis deflates. He is so weak.

“Now he’ll like hate me,” Louis laments. Niall pats his shoulder awkwardly.

“No he won’t. Harry’s great and I’m pretty sure you being gay won’t stop your friendship,” Niall tries to comfort him. It doesn’t really help but well what else is there to help him. Ed’s laughter is what takes Louis’ mind away from falling into the abyss that is his mind.

“Yeah pretty sure he won’t hate you, Louis,” Ed teases. Louis frowns at him. He’s laughing as if he knows a secret and that bugs him on many levels. What does the ginger know?

“Well, okay,” Louis manages to mumble out. Sure. Whatever. He’ll see eventually, won’t he? Ed grins at him and shakes his head, giving a short goodbye to Niall as he stands up.

“I’m going to go and see if the boys need any help. See you later, mate,” Ed says, nodding at Louis who just stares back at him, lips pursed. Ed knows _something_ and it _bothers_ him.

“See you later,” Louis responds. Ed smiles and leaves the room, and just as he does, three girls who already look plastered tumble in, causing Louis to roll his eyes.

 _Already drunk when the party just started fifteen minutes ago? Impressive_. He thinks about Niall and his stupid thing that he did when he outed him. Oh yeah. That was just a couple of minutes ago. Has he killed Niall yet? He spins around and huffs when he finds that the Irish singer is gone.

Of course. He made his mistake in the moment of distraction that the three girls created. Smart.

Suddenly, thinking about his unwelcome coming out to Harry makes a couple, or a lot, of drinks sound rather appealing right now. Who cares if he’s a famous actor? A lot of people here are famous too so it’s not like he’ll be the only famous person getting burned out.

Yes, drinks sounded _very_ appealing to him right now. Maybe Harry would go easy on him when he realizes that he’s drunk.

◊◊◊◊

Louis never manages to make it to the bar because as soon as he trips into the kitchen, and rather gracefully at that, he hears Harry’s slow, deep voice reverberating from all around him. Also, it’s hard not the notice when everyone around him is fucking cheering like he just won an Oscar. Oh wait. Louis’ eyes flicker to the lawn and he sees people wandering over there in a hurry. Harry’s voice comes again.

“Uh hey everybody. Basically, we’re One Direction and tonight, we’ll be singing some covers and a few originals from our albums, but also, Nick made us do this so blame him,” Harry laughs into the microphone and Louis smiles, finding himself leaning against the doorway that opens out into the lawn.

 _Harry is like sunshine,_ Louis thinks.

More cheers come from the audience and Louis quickly surveys them. Hm. Actually, most of the people here, Louis has no idea who they are.

Well…it’s a good thing he didn’t get drunk because Louis really cannot afford to have some crappy drunken photo of him posted tomorrow making him out to be “an actor who might be losing his way”.

Fuck them. He just loves acting. It’s not his fault that the first movie he got the main role in became a hit. Seriously. Sometimes, he wishes that he could just go back to playing in run-down theaters who’s barely trying to pay for his family, much less rent.

“The first song we’ll be playing is “Use Somebody” by Kings of Leon. Hope you enjoy the party!” Liam smiles into the microphone, looking giddy and excited. Louis smirks. That’s pretty cute actually. Idle chatter starts up again, but Louis can’t focus on anything but the way that Harry leans forward, all sharp edges and curly hair, and takes a deep breath before his voice drips like warm honey over the lawn.

“I’ve been roaming around….” Yes. Louis is in heaven.

They sing quite a few songs, going back and forth between covers of songs that aren’t at all like their music and then some of their more broad songs that can appeal to adults as well. Louis can’t keep his eyes off of Harry, and really, it’s quite bothersome.

He’s had at least ten people come up to him so far, asking for an autograph, which Louis had to decline, explaining that he didn’t want any pictures to leak tomorrow. So far, everyone has been really good about that. Louis hopes it remains that way.

After the last song, Louis feels like his legs might die if he doesn’t sit down soon. Fuck. Maybe he needs to run more or something. Harry gives a wide smile out to the audience and leaps off the stage, Liam and Zayn following, albeit a lot less dramatically and sporadically. Louis starts to turn away to go get himself a drink finally, but a large hand pulls him backwards, startling him out of his wits.

“Ahh!” Louis exclaims, managing not to fall simply because the person who so rudely grabbed him was steadying him with one hand placed on his back. “Excuse me, but—” Louis turns around and stops mid-sentence, when he realizes it’s Harry’s hand on his back. Ah. Of course.

“Louis! You watched the whole thing!” Harry proclaims and Louis’ eyes widen. Oh shit.

“Uhm,” Louis isn’t sure what he’s supposed to say here. Harry doesn’t seem to mind as he continues to chatter on, his hand still resting on Louis’ back. Louis swears it’s starting to burn right through him.

“And yet you tease me about my band? I bet you’re actually a _huge_ fan of us,” Harry proposed, a small smirk tugging at his lips. _Not your music. You._ Louis has to bite his lips so he won’t let that slip out.

“Oh yes, Harold. Quite a big fan, indeed. In fact, I even have all of your posters _covering_ my room and every night, I devise more and more plans on how to make all of you fall in love with me,” Louis deadpans. Harry laughs, his curls bobbing wildly around him. Louis wants to tug on them, specifically during anything involving sexual intercourse. _Calm, Lewis._

“For _all_ of us to fall in love? Am I not enough, Lewis?” Harry sniffs out, pouting. Louis rolls his eyes. Idiot.

“Nope. Not even close, dear young Harold. Do you want to know why?” Louis pointedly asks, needing to lean back a little from Harry’s hand that is now searing holes through his shirt. At least he thinks so.

“Why?” Harry smirks, leaning in. Louis feels his breath hitch and he has to remember what he said before he responds.

“You are a tea ruiner, Curly,” he states, for it is true. Although, Louis sort of leaves out the part where that actually has no impact on how much he wants to kiss those lips that _fuck, why do they always have to look so swollen? Not fair._ Harry laughs again, and Louis wants to bottle it up. He loves Harry’s laughs. Maybe that’s creepy. No. Louis is sure that millions of young teenage girls think the same thing. Louis thinks for a second about that and realizes he just downgraded himself to a teenage fangirl and that sort of depresses him. Well then.

“Hm. Suppose I am,” Harry says, frowning all of a sudden. Louis wants to pull back but suddenly Harry is holding his hands, grasping them tightly between them. “You know that I don’t care, right, Louis? About your sexuality?”

Louis’ surprised at first, but he smiles then, softly and shyly. Louis is very gone for this boy.

“Okay,” is all Louis can say. Harry squeezes his hands tighter and Louis can feel his palms starting to sweat against his. It’s kind of hot and sweet and Louis doesn’t know why.

“I mean it, Lou. Besides, if I said I minded, then I’d be sort of a hypocrite, right?” This is when Louis freezes because _what?!_

“What?” Yes. That really is all he could think. Harry smiles, slow and sad.

“I’m bisexual. Well pansexual. Okay, I do have a small preference for guys, but really, for me, it’s just how it is. If I’m attracted to somebody, then there, I’m attracted to them. No big deal. You?” Louis is frozen. He cannot breathe. How is he supposed to respond to this without freaking the fuck out and bruising those goddamn lips of his? He coughs, awkwardly.

“Uh, used to think I was bisexual, but wasn’t feeling anything particular special towards my old girlfriends. Figured I was just gay, and so far, I still think I am?” Louis phrases it like a question. Why why why did he phrase it like a question? Harry smiles widely then, dimples shining through.

“That’s cool, Lou. Glad you have yourself figured out. I can tell you one definite thing about me though,” Harry hints. Louis isn’t sure he’s even prepared for the bad joke that is bound to come. Louis rolls his eyes anyway.

“What, Haz?”

“Definitely _not_ asexual,” is his response and Louis laughs softly before pulling his hand back and hitting Harry’s shoulder fondly.

“Fucker,” he says, and Harry’s smile only widens. Seriously though? How is that even possible? He doesn’t say anything though and that makes Louis feel just a tad awkward. Christ, why is it that Harry Styles is one of the only boys that can make Louis feel like his freshman self again? Blushing and awkward…it needs to stop. “Well, glad that’s sorted out.” Louis laughs, trying to clear anything left between them. _But what does this mean though? Can he kiss him?_ Harry laughs again and drapes an arm over his shoulder. Louis pouts. It’s actually unfair how much taller Harry was than him.

“You fit right into my arm, did you know that?” Harry whispers into his ear, mouth tucked right next to his neck, and Louis’ getting shivers from Harry’s warm breath. Ugh. Can he kiss him _now?_

“Most riveting news, Harold. Really. Thank you for that observation,” Louis remarks and Harry smiles again, this time leading him inside.

 _It’s really really great_ , Louis decides. _Especially him._

◊◊◊◊

Louis wakes up how he wakes up 99% of his days. His phone. He reaches over and grabs at it, sliding the green button and bringing it up to his ear.

“Hello?” Louis asks, beyond tired.

“Louis?” Louis recognizes the voice as his agent, Lou Teasdale.

“Oh, hey, Lou,” Louis yawns.

“Don’t “oh hey, Lou” me! Have you seen the telly recently or maybe Sugarscape? Or maybe every British magazine around?” _Hm. She sounds mad_ , Louis notes, still yawning.

“No? I just woke up,” he says, sitting up this time to rub at his head. Why is his head pounding? He had like one drink last night.

“Well check!” she exclaims and Louis blinks against the light. Ugh. Morning.

“Okay, okay,” he appeases her by opening his computer. Sure enough, one of the first articles he sees has his name adorning the title.

**LOUIS TOMLINSON AND HARRY STYLES? THE NEW POWER COUPLE?**

“Oh shit,” he mutters, skimming over the article, and _fuck_ , there’s a picture to go alone with it. He studies it, noting how it’s definitely from last night when Harry was grasping onto his hands. He reads some out loud. “According to a source from the recent party that Nick Grimshaw, BBC Radio 1 host, held just last night at his home, Harry Styles (22) and Louis Tomlinson (24) were seen last night to be incredibly close! Is there a new bromance between the two, or is it perhaps, more? Speculations about each boy’s sexuality have been going wild since… _fuck_ ,” Louis mumbles again.

“Read all of it, Louis?” Lou asks. Lou’s voice sounds sympathetic and Louis thinks he’s grateful. Damnit. Lou has been his agent since the beginning. She had been on board with allowing him to come out, but his fucking management team doesn’t think that’s the best for him. Why does he even have a management team in the first place? He’s an _actor._

“Yeah. I’ve read it,” Louis sighs, shutting the laptop. He doesn’t even want to think about Twitter right now.

“Management won’t be happy,” she simply states. Louis sighs again, irritated, and he runs another hand through his hair.

“Yeah, I know. Fuck, what am I going to do?” he asks, leaning back in his bed. He hears Lou sigh and he stays silent.

“You’ll figure something out, I’m sure. You could always play the bromance card. They’ll take anything for now,” Lou suggests. Louis nods even though she can’t see him. Maybe he’s nodding for himself anyway.

“Yeah, okay. Thanks for warning me, Lou. Amazing agent, as always,” he says.

“All right, Louis. Take care, love,” she says, voice warm before he hears the dial tone. He places his phone down to his side with a frown. Fuck. What is he supposed to do about this? Why can’t he just come out? Oh shit. Maybe he can’t come out now because it would only add to Harry’s speculations about being gay. No no, he can’t do that to him. Louis sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. What should he do? Is Harry mad at him?

His phone vibrates and he picks it up again, bringing it above his head so he can read it. It’s a text from Harry.

 _we look cute together, Lou!!!!_ _Xxxx_

He had attached the picture and Louis frowns again. What. Does. That. Mean? Another text comes through.

_by the way i’m not mad at you. hope you’re not mad at me??? Xxxx_

**i’m not mad at you, haz :) Xxxxxx and we don’t look cute because ur too freakishly tall!!!!**

Harry’s text comes almost instantly.

_or maybe you’re just freakishly short ;) Xxxxxx_

Louis snorts, already forgetting about the whole article thing. Harry Styles will be the death of him. Louis swears by it.

So, why does he yearn for it so incredibly much?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> update to be expected in 1-2 weeks. thank you for reading! kudos and comments= much appreciated.
> 
> tumblr= iwannapandanamedchubs
> 
> you know, if you wanna talk :)


	3. chapter three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> meh. not happy with this chapter but it was needed.  
> remember:
> 
> Italics= Harry  
> Bold= Louis 
> 
> also I guess this is set this year? Idk. I just had to make up some dates for the soon to be tweets but like it's after the brits by a few weeks so I was guessing mid-March…hmm yeah.
> 
> One more thing- CBB = Celebrity Big Brother. It's a tv show and if you follow Louis' tweets then you know he's a freaking loser and tweets about it all the time. idk.

 

**◊ chapter three ◊**

 

 

It didn’t seem all that fair to Louis now that people knew about the relationship between Harry and him.

Not that it was a _relationship_ , but there were definitely _relations._

Anyway, it wasn’t fair to him now because now it wasn’t their secret. Now, people _knew._

So when he arrived at work today to shoot a quick scene for _Losing Suns_ , a drama about a boy who’s lost his eyesight and yet becomes a famous painter (Louis plays his very attractive mentor in this one), the first thing he hears about Harry is from his makeup artist, Jenna.

“So, Harry Styles, huh?” she asks, as she spreads the concealer under his eyes to hide the pretty much permanent bags. Louis politely smiles and feels his phone buzz in his pocket. Seriously. It’s only been a day since the article.

“Yeah, not like that, Jen,” he says, closing his eyes as she starts to apply something Louis doesn’t know the name of to the top of his eyes. He can still practically _feel_ her smirk when she sighs happily.

“Oh well good for me as it’ll be _me_ marrying him,” she says. He opens one eye to peek at her and she scowls at him indicating that he needs to close it. He does so.

“Aren’t you married?” he asks, his smile starting to peek through. She scoffs.

“I can bet that my husband would love to marry that man too. He would gladly turn gay for Harry Styles,” she says and Louis’ smiling widely now.

“Is that so?” he asks, with an eyebrow raised.

“Indeed,” she says, “Okay. I’m finished. You’re ready for your scene.” Louis nods as he opens his eyes, looking at himself in the mirror. Jesus Christ, if only he could look like this after he gets out of bed.

“Thanks Jen,” he says. She nods, ruffling his hair.

“Break a leg, Lou,” she says, before beginning to clean up her makeup things. Louis stands up and smiles warmly at her again before heading off to leave to the set.

When Louis finally gets past four more questions about Harry, he’s finally able to take his place on the set with Tommy, the boy playing Jonathan, the main character, to introduce himself. They’ve already filmed several scenes together but since they don’t shoot most scenes in order they’re just now finally getting around to shooting their introduction scene.

Just as they are about to finish the scene, Louis realizes his grave mistake when he feels his phone vibrate in his pocket. Well, he realizes when it vibrates again, and then again. Until finally, Louis is hoping with every fibre in his being that whoever is texting him doesn’t call him. He thinks it could be several people, so the chance for each could-be person is different. _Why_ didn’t he turn his phone off?

He keeps up his acting though, feeling texts come in at a rapid pace, and Louis is starting to wonder what is going on now. He thought it was only one person at first, but now, the texts are coming in so quickly, there is no possible way it could only be one person. What was going on?

Then, the worst possible thing happens and “Girls Just Want To Have Fun” blasts on loudly right at the end of the scene. Everyone goes quiet and Louis visibly pales as his hand drops down to his phone. That ringtone is Harry’s. That means Harry was calling him. What’s going on?

“Cut!” Ben Winston, the director yells. Louis grimaces. The phone keeps ringing for a few seconds and then cuts off. “Louis?! What the hell man?!”

“I’m so sorry, Ben. I forgot to turn my phone off and—” he gets cut off by his phone ringing again, Cyndi Lauper singing at her fullest. Ben sighs loudly and people around them are snickering. Louis’ somewhat offended, but mostly, he’s just embarrassed.

“Well pick it up, Tomlinson!” Louis nods quickly and pulls it out, putting it up to his ear instantly. Everyone is still watching him. What the hell?

“Uhm…Harry?” he asks, and he watches as the people around him change their expressions into something between amused and curious. Oh no.

“Louis! I’m so sorry!” Harry exclaims and it’s because it sounds like he’s about to cry that Louis freezes. What. Happened?

“What’s wrong?” he asks, still aware of everyone’s gaze on him.

“Louis….” Harry’s crying now and Louis is freaking the fuck out.

“Harry! What the hell is the matter?!”

“A-apparently someone overheard us that n-night,” he cries, and Louis’s confused. What was he talking about?

“Harry, babe, what are you talking about?” he asks gently, completely forgetting about everyone around him.

“That night. The pictures. The party. You t-told me that you were gay, r-remember? Louis… _fuck_ …I’m so sorry,” he sniffles, still crying. Louis still doesn’t know what’s going on. Wait…the pictures from the party? Yeah…that happened, but…what were they talking about…oh no. The realization settles on him like a thousand bricks being pushed down onto him. Oh no.

“Is there a recording?” he asks, feeling his heart rate speed up. He’s aware of everything now. Everyone’s gaze on him. He needs to leave, but he can’t physically move his feet.

“N-no,” Harry sniffles out. Louis feels a hundred bricks lifted.

“Is the source reliable?”

“Well, not really…” Harry says, still sniffling but not as much. Louis can feel another hundred lifted.

“Harry, is there anything that makes it more distinctive than anything more than just a rumor?” he asks. Harry sniffles.

“I mean…sort of? I guess? Their quotes are right and everything. I mean, it’s what we actually said, but we’re the only ones to know that…I’m so fucking sorry, Lou,” he says. Louis sighs. This wasn’t as bad as he thought. He can pass this off as just another rumor. It’s not that big of a deal.

“Harry, it is not your fault, okay?” he says because it’s the truth. It wasn’t Harry’s fault. It was his. He was a reckless fool in love with a closeted pop star. Wait. Love? _No._

“Okay, I guess,” Harry mumbles. Louis smiles. He can tell Harry doesn’t believe him.

“It’s _not your fault, Haz_ ,” he says again. He knows Harry’s smiling now.

“ _Okay_ , Lou,” Harry says. Louis laughs, looking around at everyone watching him. He cannot wait for more annoying questions about their relationship. Well non-relationship. Well no there is something…either way, he can’t wait. Fucking Christ, he can’t even be sarcastic in his own mind.

“You do know you called me in the middle of a scene, right?” Louis adds, just to further torment Harry. Harry groans.

“Oh _shit_ , Lou! I’m so sorry! I’ll just hang up now! I’ll call you later, okay? I have to go to practice anyway,” he says. Louis nods, even though he knows Harry can’t see him.

“Have fun pop star,” he teases. Harry groans again.

“I hate you. Bye, Lou,” he says.

“Bye, Haz,” Louis says, hearing Harry hang up. He puts his phone away slowly, aware of everyone watching him. What the hell? Why? Ben’s smiling widely.

“Looks like some rumors are true!” he teases, before adding to the rest of the group with a wicked glint in his eye, “ _Babe_.”

Louis opens his mouth to protest, but Ben’s already clapping his hands demanding they get back into position to shoot the scene again. He makes Louis turn off his phone in front of everyone, and Louis manages to see that he’s got 28 unread messages before it shuts down. Wow, okay. Ben doesn’t even allow him to think about what they could say as he’s starting to film already. _Well then, let’s do this again,_ Louis thinks.

◊◊◊◊

It turns out the messages were mainly regarding the “insider information” and even angrier messages from his management talking about what they will do to fix these rumors. According to Lou, Louis would soon be seen out with some model on a “date” to keep up the ridiculous pretenses the he was straight. Plus, he had to tweet something on Twitter that would make the gay rumors go away. So he did.

It wasn’t really a lie. Harry and him _were_ just friends, but he _wanted_ people to read too much into it. Or at least, he wanted people to know that he pretty much loved Harry, but that would only happen if Harry and him were dating and even then, public.

Damnit.

Like that’ll happen.

Louis sighs and leans back against the couch he just got to sit on again. He’s been so incredibly busy with all of these movies, and he’s thankful that in one of them, he’s not even a main character. Usually, he is, but in _Parmesan Tomorrow_ , he’s just a side character (thank _god)._

It didn’t help anything though when Harry responded not even two minutes later.

And _no._ He wasn’t allowed to _do that._ Why did he have to go and _do that?_ Louis pouts because of the unfairness of it all, and of course because god hates him or something, a text comes through and of course, it’s from Mr. Harry Styles himself because _why the hell not?_

            _fancy a dinner today lou? if you're not busy i mean. xxxxx_

            **hmm…if it isn’t mr. styles himself. okay yeah i can. but where? Xxxxx**

_i can make you fajitas at my place ;) Xxxx_

Louis’ about to reply but the idiot sends another text.

            _or not? you seem like the type to like mexican food though. idk. want to? xxx_

            **nope xx**

_oh… well what do you want?? xx_

**i’m kidding haz! I love mexican food! what time? xxxxx**

_oh GOOD! I was about to disown you as my friend lou! uh 6:30? is that ok? Xxxx_

            **you’re an idiot and yeah that’s fine. see you then haz. Xxxxx**

            _see you, lou ;) Xxxx_

_Wait lou? x_

**yeah? x**

_why was the tomato blushing????  Xxxx_

**No, Harry.**

_because it saw the salad dressing!!! haha bye Louis! xxxxxxx_

**i hate you harry. goodbye. i may or may not show up to dinner.**

_Louis let me say goodbye properly!_

**no.**

            _Louuiiiissssssssssssssss XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX_

_xxxxxxxx_

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

            _XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX LOUIS_

Louis is _done_.

            **HARRY STOP OKAY GOODBYE. I’ll come…like i wouldn’t anyway… xxx**

_yay! byeee Louis! xxxxx_

**you’re ridiculous. bye. Xxxx**

Louis shut off his phone determined not to look at it and instead plan out his week accordingly because last time an assistant did it, he was late to everything and missed two meetings. Like the saying goes, if you want things done right, you got to do them yourself. Louis took that very seriously.

In the end, he ended up watching CBB until he got a call two hours later saying he was scheduled for another shooting for _Push the Limits_ , the only action-comedy he has worked on in a long time. Nothing award-worthy though. The award-winning one was definitely for _Losing Suns._ He agreed, eyes still trained on the television before he fully realized what she were saying.

“Wait no, I’m busy tonight, Lou…” he says, biting the inside of his lip. She scoffs.

"With what? You just tweeted about watching CBB not twenty minutes ago,” she says. He bites the inside of his lip harder. Should he just tell her the truth? It’s not it’ll be in a public place plus Lou does care about him.“I have a kind of date? I don’t know. He didn’t say it was a date, but it practically is,” Louis says, thinking back on the text messages they sent a while ago.

“Louis, this is one of your only scenes for this movie. How important is this date?”

Louis was usually very responsible. He was.

He got his things taken care of and if it were anybody else but Harry, he would’ve rescheduled the dinner for another time and taken care of his scene, but maybe it was because he knew he’d be able to get tonight off if he pleaded hard enough (that’s his reward for rescheduling every other thing he might have had going on at other times), he’d be able to go to Harry’s house and he’d have fun.

Besides, thinking about disappointing the stupid boybander made him physically cringe because he would only imagine that sullen look that Harry got when something made him sad but he wouldn’t admit it because he has just _that_ _big_ of a heart.

“Important,” is all Louis can say. He hears Lou draw in a breath, obviously surprised at his answer.

“Louis…really?” her voice is something close to awe, and Louis is struck how much he really does pretty much love Harry. Shit. Well, it doesn’t have to be love. It can be an intense like. Yeah, Louis likes the sound of that much better.

“Yeah. It’s important, Lou,” he says again, sighing into the phone.

“Oh well…I can manage something out for tonight. It’s not a big scene. You can do early tomorrow morning,” she says.

“Thanks, Lou,” Louis says, smiling.

“Anytime, Louis. Have fun. Wait, do I know them?” she asks. Yeah. This is it. That moment where he has to decide to tell her.

“Yeah. It’s Harry,” he finally says because _fuck it._ He loves Lou. She’s great and incredibly trustworthy.

“I thought so. Okay…just…keep to yourselves okay, Louis? Seriously, have fun, you twat,” she laughs. Louis says he will and hangs up, grasping his phone in his hand tightly.

Everything lately has Harry Styles trailing behind it and it’s not _bad._ Louis doesn’t feel _bad_. He feels so incredibly happy and it’s not fair.

Harry. Harry. Harry.

That’s all it seems to be on the surface, and underneath it’s just HarryandLouis, and it makes him so fucking happy.

◊◊◊◊

Harry opens the door with the biggest grin on his face.

“Louis!” he exclaims, pulling him in. “Any paps?” he asks, looking over his shoulder before he closes the door. Louis shakes his head.

“I didn’t see any. Doesn’t mean there aren’t any though,” Louis informs him. Harry nods seriously and shuts the door. As soon as the door closes, he pulls Louis into a tight-knit hug.

“I’m still sorry about all of the rumors, Louis,” Harry mumbles into his shoulder. Louis can’t breathe and he loves it. The hug almost seems awkward due to the major height difference. Harry is having to arch his entire body down to fully bury his face into Louis’ shoulder and Louis doesn’t actually know how to handle this.

“Harry, I told you already it’s not your fault,” Louis assures him. Harry shakes his head and buries himself even more. Louis is getting slightly turned on now so he’s the one who backs up. He can’t just go sporting a random hard on while here. That wouldn’t really do him all that good.

Although, the somewhat rejected look on Harry’s face isn’t doing him anything good either. Louis decides to distract him.

“Where’s the food, young singer? Didn’t you learn to respect your elders by giving them food?” he asks, smiling at the pouting idiot. Harry quirks a smile at that.

“I’m so sorry, Mr. Tomlinson. My manners completely escaped me. Come. Let’s go onward towards the dining table. Dinner is already ready,” Harry says, taking Louis’ hand and Louis has to remember that _this isn’t a date._ Although, when he looks at Harry’s hand wrapped around his, he really really wants it to be. But how does one go about doing that?

The dining room is dimmed, with candles sprinkled over the table and the food in the middle of the table, looking too glorious in Louis’ opinion.

 _Not a date_ , he thinks petulantly to himself once more. Harry sits him down at gentleman like, causing Louis to have internal breathing problems, and then sits down beside him.

"Well Harold, is this the part where you confess your secret attraction to me and then proceed to wine and dine me?” Louis teases, setting his chin in his hands as he leans forward on the table to stare at Harry. Harry sucks in a breath, and Louis pauses because Harry didn’t give any normal cheeky response. He was just sort of looking at him. Uhm. “Harry?”

Harry mumbles something, but it’s so soft and jumbled that Louis can’t make it out for the life of him.

“What?” he asks. Harry clears his throat and blinks once. Twice. Three times.

“I suppose,” he says again, pronouncing his words with a delicate certainty. Louis freezes. What? Harry’s looking at him and Louis feels way too open for his liking right now. Harry blinks again and shakes his head slowly. Louis can only watch. “Hey, Louis?”

“Yeah?”

“Did you see the movie about the hot dog?” he asks and _uhm okay_ , Louis was definitely not expecting that to be what come out of Harry’s mouth just then.

“What?” Louis asks, stupidly blinking.

“Well, you should watch it. It was an Oscar Weiner,” Harry deadpans, before breaking into a large grin. Louis laughs anyway.

“You’re a fucking twat,” Louis grumbles. Harry just continues to grin cheekily at him, making Louis pointedly start to ignore him as he starts to load his plate with the tempting fajitas.

They talk for a good two hours after they finally finished dinner, which resulted in Louis spoon-feeding beans to Harry to see how many bites he could fit in his mouth, and that ended in Louis laughing so hard at Harry that he spilled beans on Harry’s nose, which only made Harry laugh, so really it ended with Louis dying on the floor because Harry had beans pouring out of his mouth at an alarming rate. Really, it should have been disgusting to Louis, but by that point, he had to look away to stop the incredible urge to kiss him.

_This is getting ridiculous._

“Hey, Louis?” Harry asks, Louis’ legs on Harry’s lap as they sit on the couch in Harry’s other living room. Honestly, he has _two_. Well, Louis does too, but _still._

“Haz, if it’s another stupid joke I swear I’m gonna—”

“It’s not a joke,” Harry cuts in. He’s looking straight into Louis’ eyes now. Louis shuffles his feet on Harry’s lap, but Harry holds onto them.

“Then, what is it, Harry?” Louis asks. Harry frowns and juts out his bottom lip. It’d be pretty fucking cute if it wasn’t because of something that sounded like it’d be pretty serious.

“Are you ever going to come out?” he asks. Louis frowns too. He didn’t know what he was expecting, but it wasn’t really that.

“I-I guess…I mean, that’s my plan. Hell, I want to come out already anyway, but my team isn’t really for me doing that, and apparently, in my contract, it says I can’t. I can tell you I was fucking pissed when I found that out,” Louis tells him honestly. Louis watches for Harry’s expression, but he doesn’t give anything away except for a tight-lipped mouth and a frown. He’s staring at Louis and it’s sort of nerve-wracking. “What?” Louis finally gives in. Harry’s still looking at him with that intense stare.

“I’m planning on coming out this year hopefully,” Harry finally says. Louis’ pretty shocked to be honest. He wasn’t expecting that either. Hell, he doesn’t expect half of the things that come out of Harry’s mouth. Maybe that’s why he’s so drawn to him.

“You are?” Louis asks. Harry nods.

“Yeah. I’ve been talking to our management team about it. They say it’s not that big of a deal since I’m bisexual- well, pansexual-rather than just gay. It might even bring in some new fans or something. I don’t really know anything about those details, but I do know that I want to stop hiding from my fans about my sexuality. I just want people to know that it’s okay, you know? That whatever sexuality you have…it’s fine,” Harry ends his speech there and Louis smiles.

“That’s great, Haz. Really. It’ll do a lot of good, and who knows…maybe it’ll inspire my management to stop being so pig-headed and let me come out as well,” Louis says. Harry laughs at that.

“Maybe,” he wistfully agrees. Louis nods again, feeling slightly out of place. He doesn’t know why. Harry just does that to him. He makes him feel completely comfortable and out of place all at the same time. Louis pulls off his legs and stands up to go and look for the movie he already knows is there.

“Well, dear Harold. It’s time to put on Grease. No complaints. You dined me, but now it’s time to wine me, and the best time to do that is during the showing of my favorite movie,” Louis deadpans. Harry laughs again, delighted.

“I see, old Louis, dear sir. Let us watch indeed,” Harry laughs, pulling Louis back towards the couch as soon as he puts in the movie. Louis cuddles against his arm, trying not to think too hard about what Harry said about coming out. No, he doesn’t want to get riled up again. Louis sighs once, deciding on smiling for the rest of the night. Harry pets his head and Louis smiles widely. Yeah, he’s glad he got to reschedule the scene. Today was definitely very important.

◊◊◊◊

Louis wakes up with Harry wrapped around him and a phone blasting near his ear. He groans, shuffling under Harry’s arms, to try and reach for his phone.

“Turn it off,” Harry groans into his neck. Louis laughs and tries to pry Harry off of him, but the big giraffe won’t move.

“Harry, get off. I need to get my phone, you twat,” Louis grunts, still reaching. Fuck. Why is his phone so goddamned loud? Instead of saying anything, Harry reaches over his head and grabs it for him, bringing it over his head. Louis’ eyes widen as he sees Harry swipe the green call button and bring it up to his ear.

“What are you doing?” Louis hisses. Harry grins at him sleepily, yawning into the phone.

“This is Louis’ phone,” he says. There’s a long pause, but since Louis is so close, he can hear Lou’s voice through the phone.

“Uh…is this…Harry?” she says. Louis is freaking out now. Harry yawns again.

“Yeah, it is,” Harry simply says, smirking at Louis now. Louis wants to hit him. Louis hears Lou cough.

“Oh…uh well…wow, he really cares about, huh?” Louis freezes. Oh no. Oh shit. Shit. Shit. _Shit._ Harry freezes as well, staring at Louis.

“Uh,” he says eloquently. Lou isn’t stopping though.

“Jesus, he said yesterday that it was important, but how much fun did you have with him that he can’t answer his own phone? I didn’t realize how important you really were to him,” Lou says loudly. Louis still can’t move.

Harry seems to be in the same boat as him, but still manages to say, “He’s actually right here…if you would like to talk to him?”

“Yes, please,” Lou says. Harry nods softly and hands the phone to Louis, who’s surprised that he can even move nonetheless take the phone and bring it up to his ear.

“Hello, Lou,” he breathes into the phone. She laughs.

“Wow, Louis. I’m glad you had fun. Anyway, I called you about the scene you rescheduled last night. You have it rescheduled for today in about an hour and a half. Same place. After that, you have another shooting for _Losing Suns._ That’ll last until almost 1 AM. At least, that’s what they’re expecting. So, say goodbye for now to lover boy,” she says. Harry freezes even more if that’s possible. Louis stiffens in response, trying to remind himself that it is not Lou’s fault that this is happening.

“Thanks for letting me know. See you soon, Lou,” he manages to grit out. He hangs up and Louis dares to peek a glance up at Harry, who still hasn’t moved. Green eyes bore into blue, and Louis is slightly freaking out. Harry isn’t saying anything though. “I need to go.” Louis stands up abruptly and looks down at Harry, who’s still frozen on the couch. Louis groans a bit at how stiff his body feels from sleeping on the couch, but other than that, he smiles down at Harry. “Thanks, Haz. I’ll see you later, okay? I had a lot of fun.”

Louis is just out of the door when he hears his name being called.

“Hey Louis?” Harry says from the couch. Louis freezes, hand on doorknob.

“Yeah, Harry?” he asks, not daring to even look back. He’s terrified, is the thing.

“I’ll see you soon, Lou,” Harry finally mumbles. Louis smiles to himself and nods, still not looking back.

“Yeah,” he agrees. “See you soon.”

He opens the door and stands there for a good two minutes, trying not to freak out about whatever just happened. Louis sighs. _I am a world-class actor. Calm_ , he thinks. He just sighs again as he makes his way to his car.

◊◊◊◊

This scene for _Losing Suns_ was being a bitch to him today. Honestly. He hasn't eaten in six hours and he’s tired an upset, yet he still has at least seven more hours of shooting. Right now he wishes that _he_ could shoot someone. With an actual gun.

He shakes his head, determining that this isn’t America and then smiles at his own joke. He is so fucking tired if he’s smiling so wide about his own jokes. He’s on break right now and just left the restroom, but that doesn’t stop him from trudging along, hoping for the apocalypse to happen right about now. When he gets there, Lou pounces on him.

“Louis! Where were you?”

“The loo,” he sighs. “Why so curious?” She sighs this time. Louis just watches her. “What?” he asks again.

“Honestly, I tell you to keep it low and yet,” she pulls out her phone and shoves it into Louis’ hand. Louis’ a little confused. He takes it and looks down at it before drawing in a sharp breath. _Oh_.

They’re pictures. Pictures of him specifically. With Harry. In front of his house. Both last night and this morning. With him in same clothes. _Fuck._

“Seriously, Louis? Honestly? You can’t make my job easier?” Lou asks. Louis runs a hand through his hair and gives her back her phone.

“Fuck. I’m sorry, Lou. I’m such a twat to forget about the fucking paps this morning! Or even look out for them last night…I was just so caught up in…” _Harry._ The words die from his lips and he looks over at Ben, who’s watching them curiously. He gives a tight smile and a little wave and Ben calls him over. Louis turns back to Lou. “Ben’s calling me for the next scene. I’m so sorry, Lou. I’ll handle it somehow, okay?”

She nods even though worry is etched all over her face. Louis kisses her cheek before heading off to shoot the scene. Maybe, that’ll go well.

◊◊◊◊

It didn’t go well. At all.

He ended up going home around 4 AM because Louis is a complete idiot.

He kept forgetting his lines and at one point, he said the lines for a completely different scene. He tripped a few times, and he knows that his pay was cut a tiny bit just from how much he messed up today.

He’s lying on his bed, exhausted and frustrated. Damn.

This would be easier if he was out to the public.

Okay, granted, he’d still be getting press, but it’d be _different_ press.

It wouldn’t be the type where he has to hide because of a fucking contract he didn’t read thoroughly. It’d be because he was seeing Harry fucking Styles, boybander and one of the sweetest people Louis knows. Also known as the boy who destroyed Louis completely and yet makes him laugh the most.

Would he even be ready for any type of relationship with Harry? If he got into a relationship, he’d fall even harder. He already knows. And Harry would give him what he wanted for a while, but then he’d find somebody else. Someone who can give him more than tea and advice. Harry would dump him albeit it would be nicely, but he’d still dump him and then where would Louis be?

He’d have a few Oscars and a completely lonely love life to show for it.

Louis rolls over onto his left side and pouts.

He doesn’t want to think about this anymore. It’s not fair. It’s not fair because regardless of any “relationship” with Harry, he’s already fallen.

Harry already has enough control over him to completely break his heart. He should be running away.

Why isn’t he running away?

Why does he just want to get closer?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wasn't happy at the beginning of this chapter and I'm not happy with the end. Hang in there guys! Next update should be coming in another 1-2 week interval! Comments and kudos are much appreciated and thanks for reading!


	4. chapter four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So apparently, it's actually been nearly three weeks since I updated oops? I swear I thought it was only two, but apparently…not. This chapter was, though, ridiculously hard to write in the middle of it, but the beginning and end flowed right along. :)
> 
> Italics= Harry  
> Bold= Louis (is Louis in this one idk)
> 
> Anyway, also I tried looking up the rules regarding the paps and restaurants, but I couldn't find it, sooo I just went with it. :) Whatever. It's my story so.

**◊ chapter four ◊**

 

Louis is being harassed and he doesn’t necessarily like it.

Well, he’s used to it, yes, but he didn’t expect to be _so_ questioned about it on live television when he agreed to actually show up for today’s interview promoting the movie _Losing Suns._

Thankfully, he wasn’t the only one there, but it seems his co-stars were also just as curious about his relationship with Harry because they were making absolutely no move to help him.

Twats.

In fact, he’s pretty sure that Perrie is smirking at him right now.

“I’m not dating him,” he finally answers. The interviewer, whatever her name is (he doesn’t know- she’s not popular) is simply raising an eyebrow. She and everyone else look like they don’t believe it and even though Louis wished he was lying, he wasn’t. He just sighs.

“Well, why _not?!_ ” she exclaims. The audience laughs. Louis briefly wonders why this lady has her own talk show and also tries to remember her name, but sadly, fails once more. He makes no move to respond for a moment, already knowing what his management wants him to say.

He could just say it and get the lie over with. _That he’s_ not _gay,_ but for some reason he just sits there, quietly. Apparently, this freaks out the audience and when he hears the hushed whispers fall over the crowd, he realizes his stupid mistake of silence. He’s about to open his mouth to say something— _anything_ , but then Tommy starts to cough and the attention is on him now. Thank God.

“Oh no! Tommy, you can’t be getting sick! You’re the main character!” the interviewer exclaims.

Louis decides right then and there that’s she’s a fake bitch. Okay, maybe that was a little harsh but it was her fault that he became all awkward after questions he shouldn’t be receiving anyway. Tommy smiles after he’s finished coughing. He gestures toward Louis.

“Pretty sure I got it from him. He was coughing a whole lot yesterday during set,” he explains. Louis frowns. He was? Oh…huh yeah, suppose he was. Louis just grins sheepishly, hoping that she won’t bring up Harry again. She doesn’t (thank god) and instead brings up Perrie’s love life in which she avoids rather mysteriously.

The interview finishes almost ten minutes later and they’re ushered out, the sounds of applause following all the way to the back room.

Tommy immediately goes to his mother, who hugs him and starts to lead him away, while Perrie and Louis both immediately check their phones.

Louis sees that he has twenty unread messages and two phone calls, both of which are from his mother. Louis frowns, promising to call her after he reads the texts.

There’s seven from Niall, all of which are talking about how fun he’s having at home eating ice cream and watching Louis’ stupid face on screen.

The last one is about him and Harry doing something that Louis wouldn’t particularly mind not doing.

Louis bites the inside as his lip when he sees the one from Harry.

_you did great, Louis!! Xxx_

He quickly types out a “ **thanks** ” in response to read the other messages.

They are all seemingly unimportant to Louis after having read Harry’s text message.

He sighs and realizes that he’s actually quite starving. He doesn’t want to eat at home though, but he knows that going out to eat would only cause chaos.

Why can’t he go out to eat and not be harassed by the public? He understands he’s famous for making movies but why does that have to matter so much to those who aren’t? He just wants to be able to go out and eat and he wants to be able to do it with friends, and _not_ be questioned if he’s in some sort of relationship with them or not.

Fuck. Now, he’s just angry at the world.

He wants to rebel or something. He decides he’s going to rebel and that no one can stop him, and while he’s at it, he’s going to do it with someone who’ll he won’t necessarily regret doing it with, just someone he’s going to be yelled at for.

Harry picks up on the second ring.

“Louis?” Fuck, his voice is too much for Louis right now in his rebellious mind.

It just brings up everything he wants to do with him and how he wants to do it in public. Well, not all of it. Somehow, Louis’ already reached his car and he gets in, ignoring the flash he can see out of the corner of his eye. He probably shouldn’t start driving yet, just because he doesn’t want some article online tomorrow about how he’s an unsafe driver because he drives while talking on the phone. He stays seated in car, making sure to lock the car just in case some psycho comes up and tries to take it or something, although he doubts it’ll happen.

“Hey Haz? Wanna do something rebellious against the media and both of our managements?” he breathes out. Jesus fuck, he’s already rushing on adrenaline. Harry draws in a short breath, but when he releases it as a small laugh, Louis knows he’s got him.

“Oh yeah? Like what?” he asks, voice still warm in Louis’ ear. It isn’t fair. Louis smiles.

“Want to go to Olive Garden with me?” he asks. “Right now? I’m hungry.” Harry laughs again, louder and clearer, causing Louis’ skin to prickle. Maybe this isn’t good for _himself_ as he might get too carried away with the whole sudden “rebellion” thing.

“Which one, Lou?”

“The one by where you live,” is what he says. Louis starts the car now, letting it warm up for a second before he laughs and says, “I’ll see you there, Haz. Let’s cause chaos.”

“Always, Louis,” Harry says seriously. Louis is so so gone for him. Harry hangs up first and Louis puts his phone away, seeing the pap in his rearview mirror, smirking a little. Pretty soon, he’ll have tons of annoying paps on him, but he can’t care about that now. He’s just hungry and when he’s hungry, he eats. Why shouldn’t he be able to go out and eat with a friend when he’s hungry?

Louis starts coughing almost halfway to the restaurant, and he hopes for a short second that he isn’t getting sick. He can’t afford getting sick while shooting so many films. How does he even have time to afford going out to eat? Louis doesn’t particularly know but he’s thankful for it either way.

He gets to Olive Garden and it’s pretty normally packed. Louis can see that Harry is already here as his car is still parked, but when Louis pulls up into the parking lot, he also notices that Harry is still in the car. He parks next to him (conveniently enough, the open space was next to Harry’s car).

He gets out quickly, locks his own, and smoothly slides into Harry’s car. Harry smiles at him, having already noticed that Louis’ arrival.

“Hey, Louis. Fancy meeting you here,” Harry retorts. Louis rolls his eyes.

“Yeah, fancy that,” he responds. Harry grins at him and then reaches out and pulls Louis to him for a hug. Louis’ surprised to say the least, but he quickly loosens in Harry’s grip and hugs him back, albeit a bit awkwardly since they are in a car. He starts coughing into Harry’s shoulder and Louis tries to control it. It briefly reminds him of when he first soberly met Harry.

“Are you getting sick, Lou?” Harry asks, patting him on the back. Fuck.

“I don’t know. Hopefully not,” Louis mumbles into his shoulder. “It’s whatever.” Harry simply nods, the patting turning to rubbing. It’s comforting.

“So, what spurred this on all of the sudden?” Harry asks when Louis pulls back. Louis grins at him.

“Well, I was hungry and a little fed up with the media’s bullshit. Figured “why not”,” Louis answers. Harry just nods. “You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to, Harry.”

“No, I know, but…I do, you know? Like I said, Louis. I’m here for you and yeah….” Harry trails off, probably feeling awkward, but Louis just wants to kiss him. Instead, he just smiles wider.

“Ready? I’m starving. I’ll go in first, okay? You follow behind in a few minutes,” he says.

“Yeah, sounds good,” Harry agrees.

Louis gets out first, noticing that there isn’t anyone out here to notice him just yet. He can feel the nerves starting to settle in and Louis tries to remember the last time he’s been here and not papped.

He thinks it was with his mother when they were celebrating him being accepted as the person to play the role of Damien in _Ascending Figures,_ the drama that made him famous.

That was seven years ago, when he was only seventeen.

He enters the restaurant pretty smoothly, noticing the people sitting down, waiting for tables. He hears a “holy shit” come from somewhere to the left and he just smiles awkwardly, making his way up to the wide-eyed hostess.

“Hi, I’m here to reserve a table for two. I mean… I have a friend coming soon as well,” he says, coughing a little. Damnit. He does not want to be getting sick.

The hostess is staring at him for about two more seconds before she coughs and then says, “Yes, of course. You’ll have to wait though…is that…okay?” The fact that she has to ask that appalls Louis and he wishes that he’s not the only one to not accept that fact that even famous people are human beings as well.

“Why wouldn’t it be okay? That’s fine. We can wait as long as we need. We’ll have fun waiting and I’m sure it’ll be a great reward eating too,” he says, smiling warmly at her. Louis sees her blush and he purses his lips, feeling a little guilty. _I’m gay, love. So sorry._

“Oh okay, great. We’ll get you a table as soon as your turn is up,” she says. Louis nods at her and turns to leave, but then she calls out, “I really love your movies by the way. I cannot wait to see _Losing Suns_.” Louis smiles at her again, honored.

“Thanks love. I really enjoy shooting the movie. I believe it’s going to be a great movie,” he says. She nods, obviously feeling flushed by how red she is. Louis just smiles at her again before sitting between two empty seats. Louis takes out his phone, trying to appear busy and an elderly couple is called up to go to a table and Louis tries hard to ignore the flash of the phone as the family that was at the table takes a picture of him while leaving.

He knows he can now expect the paps to show soon.

When Harry walks in not even two minutes later, he can see the wheels turning in each person’s head. Louis smiles at Harry, who pauses in front of him to look down at him. Fucking hell, he really is gorgeous. Stupid fedora and all.

“Did you already reserve a table?” Harry asks, before finally sitting down to the left of Louis.

“Yeah, we’ll get it after all of these lovely people get to go to theirs,” he says. He is really hungry though, but that doesn’t mean he should go before anyone else who got here first. Harry smiles, dimples shining through like the fucking sun.

“Fantastic,” he says, quickly assessing the other people waiting. Almost all of them appear to be on their phones now and Louis figures half of them are tweeting or texting about what’s happening right now. Louis sure does know how to make an indirect statement. “Hey, Louis?”

Oh no. Louis is 85% sure he knows what’s coming.

“Yeah, Harry?” Louis asks dryly. Harry grins. Damnit. Louis was right.

“Which _Star Wars_ character works in a restaurant?” Louis rolls his eyes. He regrets all of this already.

“I don’t know, Harry, which one?” he asks, making sure to sound particularly disinterested and done. Harry smirks.

“Darth waiter,” he says before breaking into a laugh. Louis snorts before breaking into a cough and the girl closest to them lets out a laugh before looking guiltily over at them. Louis and Harry just smile at her.

“Harry, why do you even know these?” Louis asks, focusing back on Harry’s green green eyes. Seriously. What are those eyes? Harry grins at him.

“To make any moment a moment filled with bad jokes, Lou,” he says, trying to sound wise, Louis figures. Louis reaches over and pinches at those damn dimples that can’t seem to escape Louis no matter where he goes.

“You’re not funny, Haz,” he deadpans.

“Yeah, I am. You’re just too stubborn to admit it,” Harry says. Louis pouts and crosses his arms, but just as he’s about to come up with a magnificent response, there is a teenager in front of them.

She looks about fifteen and Louis can already see she’s a fan of One Direction just based on his skill of calling out fans alone. Also, the fact that she’s wearing their band’s shirt could be a major indicator as well. Whatever. He’s still Sherlock Holmes in his mind.

Louis, having been too distracted by his internal monologue of how he is indeed actually Sherlock Holmes, is shaken back into reality when Harry says, “Well hello. Did you want a picture?” He’s all smiles and adorableness and it tugs at Louis’ heart far too much for his liking. The girl blushes (Louis’ never related to anything more while around Harry).

“I’m so sorry about interrupting the two of you. It’s just…I’ve been a fan of the two of you for a _really_ long time and I wanted to thank you for bringing great music and great movies to this world!” Louis can tell she’s babbling by how red she turns after her cute, little spiel.

 _Definitely a tumblr user,_ Louis decides.

“It’s fine, really. Louis and I are just waiting for our table,” Harry smiles at her. She blushes once more. Louis still definitely understands.

“Yeah, I actually need to thank you for coming to my rescue from Harry’s absolutely lame jokes. You’ve indeed saved me,” Louis pipes in, throwing a smirk at Harry, who looks appalled for a second.

“Louis Tomlinson, you love them, and guess what, I have another one,” he says. _Of course he does._ Louis rolls his eyes and makes a gesture that says, _I’m waiting_. He notices that there are more than a few eyes on them now and he finds it funny how he can feel the suspension hanging in the air for what will ultimately be a fucking awful joke.

“I think I want a job cleaning mirrors. Wanna know why?” Harry asks slyly. Louis rolls his eyes again and crosses his arms, clearing his throat a bit.

“Not particularly, but you’re going to tell me anyway so why?” Harry smirks and leans in closely.

“It’s a job I can really see myself doing,” he says. Louis seriously fucking hates him. The girl in front of them lets out a loud laugh, which brings Louis’ attention away from Harry’s lips.

“You’re not funny,” Louis repeats again. Harry just shakes his head and turns to look once more at the girl who seriously looks as if she’s just won at life.

“Louis here obviously doesn’t understand true humor,” he says seriously, showing off those damn dimples to her again. She giggles and looks behind her at her mom who looks incredibly happy for her child.

“Do…do you mind taking a picture with me? I understand if you don’t want to,” she says, a little timidly. Louis thinks it’s cute.

“Come here,” Louis says, scooting over a little so she can sit in between Harry and him. She beams at them and immediately rushes forward to get in between them. Louis suddenly realizes he has no idea what her name is. “What’s your name?”

“Maya,” she answers, pulling out her phone, a big smile still on her face.

“Nice to finally get your name, Maya. I should warn you though… you might get sick. I think I’m coming down with something,” Louis says as she sets up the selfie shot. She giggles again and holds her phone up. Louis throws his arm over Maya’s shoulder, feeling Harry’s shoulder at the end. Wow. He’s really warm. He glances over to see how Harry reacted to his hand, but Harry was just smiling at the camera with that wide grin on his face and Louis honestly had to let out a breath that he didn’t know he was holding and then suddenly, Maya’s unlatching herself from them and Louis is confused.

“Wait, did you take the picture?” he asks.

“Yeah. Thank you both so much! I’m so grateful!” she turns towards her mom who’s still waiting there, looking happy for her daughter. Just before she’s about to leave though, she turns around and asks, “One more thing…do you mind if I posted this? I won’t if you don’t want me to though.”

“It’s fine, Maya,” Harry assures her and she looks relieved. Louis bites back a remark. He didn’t even know she took the picture. He also knows that that picture was cause everyone to go crazy since he was with Harry, but hey, isn’t that what he’s going for right now?

“It was nice to meet you, Maya! You were quite lovely!” Louis finally says and Maya gets one final glance of her face turning a bright shade of red before she’s ushered out by her mom.

“Well, that was fun,” Harry remarks, smiling at Louis.

Louis blinks and then suddenly, the hostess is calling them up. _Good timing_. Louis glances one more time out the door where Maya just left and freezes slightly. There’s a pap out there.

Actually, he thinks he sees several.

Louis takes a deep breath and then Harry takes his hand, squeezing it. He looks down at their connected hands and looks back at Harry who’s smiling down at him. He feels immediately calm. 

“Remember. It was you who decided to be a rebellious little shit today, Lou.” Louis laughs, squeezing his hand in return before letting go of it to stand up.

“Remember how it was you who decided to go along with this rebellious little shit?” Harry snorts and stands up as well.

“Yeah. Don’t remember why I did that though,” he remarks, leaving Louis standing there indignantly as he goes up to the hostess.

“Here, if you’ll follow me,” the hostess says, but not interrupting them. Louis smiles at her and after being seated, she is switched with a waiter. Louis thinks that it’s a male on purpose and he finds it ironic considering both of their sexualities. Also, probably because he’s most likely to not fangirl over them. Not that Louis really minds.

He also thinks he hears the shutter of a camera but he ignores it and focuses on Harry.

They order quickly, Louis ordering a chicken Parmesan and Harry ordering something Louis has never heard of because apparently he’s an inept cook. Wait, he already knew that.

Then, they’re just talking.

Louis was already aware of how comfortable he is around Harry, but eating like this with Harry, especially in public, is just serving as a wake-up call as to how comfortable being with Harry really is. Louis loves it honestly.

Harry’s all smiles and beauty and really it shouldn’t mean so much to Louis but it _does_. That thought was terrifying so Louis quickly dismissed it. Harry got the chance to tell three more completely awful jokes and Louis got the chance to scold Harry every single time too.

No one bothers them while they’re eating but Louis is starting to be able to hear the commotion going on outside and he pauses, fork midair when he feels his phone buzz.

 _Ah, that’ll be management_ , he thinks wryly. He sets his fork down, Harry still happily chattering away about one of his concerts, and pulls out his phone.

Louis sighs. He was right, and this time, it isn’t Lou who’s calling him.

“Hello?” he answers. Harry had already stopped talking and shut himself up for Louis to pick up the phone. By the way he’s looking at Louis, Louis figures he’s sort of already figured out whom he’s talking to.

“Are you with Harry right now?” a sharp voice says. Louis sighs. It’s Mark, one of the biggest twats that he’s ever had the pleasure of meeting.

“Yes, I’m with him,” he says, adding the last bit just to confirm Harry’s thoughts. Honestly, it should be strange how connected they already are.

“Louis, what are you doing? Hm?” He sounds mad and usually Louis would just sigh and then agree to whatever they wanted, but right now, he’s rebellious. Rebel is indeed his middle name. Okay, no it’s not, it’s William, but whatever.

“I’m eating lunch with a friend,” is what he replies. He’s watching Harry now, his stiff posture, as if he was suddenly aware that they were both famous and doing this together is sort of a big deal, regardless of their relationship.

“You know that’s not all that is. We’re going to talk about this later. I will set up a meeting and we’ll talk about dates with some _women_ , okay?” he says this as if Louis had a choice. Louis hates him, and he _especially_ hates the way he stressed the word “women”.

“Yeah, yeah,” is all he can say, eyes still on Harry. God, Harry is too beautiful for this world. How is he even fair? Louis shifts his gaze back down to his food when he hears Mark’s frustrated sigh and plays with his food, waiting for his reply.

“We’ll contact you later, Louis,” is his final, short reply before he hangs up, leaving Louis with the dial tone and a cute boy in front of him. Louis heaves a sigh and Harry’s hand touching his arm causes Louis to look back up at him.

“Is it going good?” he asks, and honestly, Louis wants to hug him. Instead of the generic “Are you okay?” he gets that question and honestly, he’s so fucking grateful. He opens his mouth to respond but of course, he starts to fucking cough again. Wow. He should get some medicine or something. Harry looks concerned but doesn’t say anything, still waiting for Louis’ response.

“I suppose,” Louis finally answers. “I don’t know. Management’s a bitch, you know?” Harry nods and Louis smiles because Harry _does_ know and it’s nice to have someone close to him who is able to actually empathize with what Louis’ feeling. Although, from the brief conversations about management he’s had with Harry, Louis suspects that Harry’s management is a whole lot more easy-going than Louis’. “Thanks, Haz. For doing this, I mean. I know you’ll get some backlash too.” Harry shakes his head and throws a fond look toward Louis.

“Louis, honestly, it’s fine. Don’t worry about it. I really am having a great time being here with you right now,” he assures. Louis believes him.

“Well, good thing for you, Curly, I’m having a good time too,” he retorts, and Harry only rolls his eyes.

“You’re ridiculous, Lou,” he states. “Are you still eating?” He gestures toward Louis’ almost finished food, and Louis realizes that just talking to management put him off his appetite. Twats.

“No, guess not. You?”

“Nope,” Harry replies, popping the “p” at the end. “Do you want to leave? We’ve been here almost two hours already.”

“Oh shit, _really?_ ” Louis looks at the time and groans. “Yeah, I have to go pretty soon. I have a scene to do later on.” He starts to pull out his wallet to pay for them, but Harry’s hand stops him.

“I’ll pay,” he says.

“Uh…no,” Louis replies, already pulling out his card.

“Come on, Lou. You can pay next time?” Harry suggests, pulling out his wallet too. Louis sees that their waiter notices they’re ready to leave and comes over toward them.

“Why don’t you pay next time then, if we’re going with that logic?” he smirks. The waiter is waiting for them now.

“ _Louis_ , _look over there!_ ” Harry suddenly exclaims and Louis’ too surprised to not move his head in the area Harry was staring, but when he realizes his mistake, it’s too late and the waiter is already walking off with the money. Louis makes an indignant sound and puts his wallet away.

“You’re a twat,” he grumbles. Harry just laughs.

“Like I said, you can pay next time,” he says and Louis briefly wonders when they got so close that saying “next time” isn’t all that big of a deal anymore. Even though everything he does with Harry is a big deal. Wow, Louis truly is fucked, isn’t he? He clears his throat once more, and _yeah, he should get this checked out._

“Well, come on, get a move on, bloody hell,” Louis exclaims, pulling Harry along with him, who’s started to walk even slower just to piss Louis off. Louis hates him.

“You’re going to get medicine today, right?” Harry asks, literally out of the blue. Louis smiles though, endeared that he’s actually still caring about that.

“Yeah, I was just thinking that actually. I’m going to get some after we leave, I suppo—” He stops talking when he sees how many paps are outside. _Holy hell._ Even Harry seems surprised and there’s a pregnant pause in the air as they both hold in their breaths before letting it out at the same time. Louis gives a wry grin and Harry gives a nervous smile.

“You ready?”

“It’ll be bad, but I mean…it’s not like we’re actually in some secret relationship. We’re friends. So yeah, I’m ready. It won’t be that bad, right?” Louis is babbling now, oh god, he’s babbling, but Harry places his hand _(and holy hell, why are his fingers so gloriously long?)_ and squeezes.

“Yeah. Come on,” he assures. He brings his hand to the middle of Louis’ back and it’s not even that big of a deal, but it’s like, _it’s there_. Harry is here with him even though this is all his fault for wanting to be some stupid rebel and Harry is _here._

His hand is warm through Louis’ shirt and Louis wants to shiver and lean in and just completely wrap himself up in what makes up _Harry_ , but he doesn’t. Instead, he leans back just slightly and says goodbye to the hostess before finally, they walk outside.

Fuck. It’s chaos.

They’re everywhere. In the distance, Louis can see a family being hassled by a pap and Louis’ stomach drops. He feels instantly guilty.

Why did he do this?

He’s completely ruined their family dinner and he knows how much those actually mean in the grand scheme of things because he hasn’t had one in _way too long._ Thankfully, it seems the father managed to push away the pap and get his children into the car safely before driving off with a loud squeal of the tires. Louis stops walking and just watches them leave. He feels so guilty. Shit.

But then, Harry’s hand is pressed into his back a little more and Louis is reminded of the screaming paps surrounding them, and he continues walking to his car.

Harry lets Louis get into his own car first, waiting patiently outside the car door as Louis gets settled into the driver’s seat. He rolls down the window and Harry’s beaming smile doesn’t change a bit.

“Thanks for walking me out to the car, Haz,” Louis smiles at him. Harry beams.

“You are so welcome, Louis. Don’t forget to buy medicine, okay?” Wow. Louis is so, so incredibly fond of this man. He can hear the yells of the paps, but really, he can’t because all that matters is how Harry is smiling at him.

“That’s where I’m headed off to now. Don’t worry about me, Curly. I’m a big boy,” he proclaims. Harry laughs and then looks at Louis to wink.

“I bet you are,” he teases and Louis’ heart stops. Harry looks behind him at the paps that are getting braver at getting closer to them and then back at him. “I’m going to go now, okay? Text me when you get home, okay?”

Louis just nods, still not over the innuendo he unintentionally that Harry intentionally pointed out. _Fuck. That’s gotta mean something, right?_

Louis sighs and shakes his head, putting his car into drive mode before driving off. He doesn’t even remember where he’s headed.

Oh yeah. Medicine.

◊◊◊◊

It’s halfway to the pharmacy that Louis realizes that he already has a shitload of medicine at home, so he turns around and heads back home. It’s halfway to his living room that he’s started coughing a whole bunch more now that he doesn’t have restrictions of the public placed upon him, so he downs the pills and heads up to his bed.

He doesn’t even check his phone or the internet.

Maybe, that’s a good thing.

Then again, maybe it’s not.

He doesn’t know, but he _does_ know that the way his bed feels is a good thing, so he lulls himself to sleep with green eyes and curly hair on the tip of his mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope y'all enjoyed.  
> next chapter is to be expected 1-2 week intervals, I guess (if I forget then it might be 1-3 weeks though sorry)  
> comments and kudos= much appreciated 
> 
> much love,  
> DiAnna44 :)


	5. chapter five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey there!! so sorry for such a long wait. I am TRASH. LITERAL TRASH. 
> 
> I meant to update that week when Zayn left but obviously...that didn't happen. 
> 
> And then, I meant to update when I got back from Mexico but then the Dad! Louis rumors started, and then I even promised Sassy_Boo_Bear an update recently but then those rumors were confirmed and I had to take a step back and look at the ship that is larry stylinson for a moment. 
> 
> I'm distancing myself from all the drama as of the moment because honestly, it affects my life much more then it should, and it's stopping me from doing things. 
> 
> I am continuing fanfiction, including this one, and I even have a daddy/uni teacher! louis and uni student! harry in the works right now. 
> 
> So sorry for such a long wait. Truly. I started this story blindly and before any of this year became literal trash and just had no motivation to update at all. 
> 
> So, yeah. 
> 
> anyway, love you all and have a terrific day. :)

**◊ chapter five ◊**

 

“Her name is Kendall. She’s a very nice girl and she’s quite aware of your…situation,” Mark tells him, handing him a folder that looks like a portfolio of the girl. Louis doesn’t open it up. They’re all the same. He does snort at how Mark phrased it. Like it’s a fucking choice.

“Situation, Mark?” Louis asks. He knows he’s treading on dangerous waters but whatever. They call him at five in the fucking morning and make him come down here even though Louis _knows_ he’s sick. He’s now determined to cough all over Mark. He hopes the bastard gets so sick, he can no longer tell him to do stupid things like not coming out.

“ _Yes_ , Louis. It’s a situation because of how you handled it,” Mark replies coolly. Louis hates him.

“Okay, so why’s she really agreeing to doing this fake dating thing?” Louis asks, peering over Mark’s head at the clock on the wall that’s three minutes fast.

“She’s a new model. Dating you will be good for her career and she knows that,” he replies. Louis snorts.

“Good for her,” he replies, feeling his phone buzz in his pocket. He hopes it’s Harry. Of course, he doesn’t move to reach it, even when it buzzes again.

Mark sighs, which pisses Louis off more. Honestly. Let him sigh all fucking day for all he cares. His phone buzzes again.

“Can I leave now?” Louis asks. “Just call me later when it isn’t almost eight in the fucking morning and tell me the details then. Or is that a situation as well?”

Mark sighs again and Louis wants to kick him. “Yes, alright. You may leave.”

Louis rolls his eyes and stands up, immediately taking his phone from his pocket as he leaves the room, hearing Mark answer some stupid phone call. Twat.

He unlocks his phone and sees that he has two new messages and a tweet notification. The tweet is from Harry. The messages are from his mother. 

Louis freezes. That’s the most indirect one can go when addressing rumors and he blinks down at his phone, heart hurting a bit. He really needs to get his shit together. Honestly.

** Louis!!! Is it true that you’re dating Harry Styles???  **

** Call me, louis **

Louis sighs, resigning himself to the inevitable talk with his mum about Harry. Luckily, he _isn’t_ actually dating him, but he knows that the talk will still be quite long. So after favoriting Harry’s tweet, he bring up his mum’s contact list and calls her.

The phone rings twice.

“Louis!” his mother says and Louis can’t help but smile. He’s still walking out of his management’s part of the building and when he gets out to the front, he’s relieved to see that there isn’t a mob of people waiting for him outside. He always hated having to hang up with people over the phone since everything around him was too loud for him to concentrate. He sees his chauffeur and greets him.

“Hi Mum,” Louis says, slipping into the backseat of the car.

“Are these rumors true?”

Louis sighs and stares out the tinted windows as the car starts up.

“No,” he finally says.

“Then why do you sound sad about that?” his mother asks, catching on because she’s his mum and obviously, that means she knows everything.

“Nothing, mum,” he replies, and she just laughs. Well, then.

 “Well, if you don’t want to admit that you like him then that’s fine with me. You’re an adult, even though you make a lot of stupid mistakes,” she says. Louis huffs, outraged.

“I absolutely do not!” he protests. Louis can practically hear his mother roll her eyes.

“Yes, you absolutely do,” she responds. It’s Louis’ turn to roll his eyes.

“You’re mean to me. Why are you so mean to me? I’m supposed to be your famous, wealthy, and successful son and yet here you are, telling me how reckless I am,” he whines. Louis pretends he doesn’t hear his driver snort.

His mum sighs. “Yes, well, you’re still my baby. What are you headed off to do now?”

“I’m just going home actually. It is, after all, way too early for me.”

“Louis, it’s eight in the morning.”

“Like I said, too early.”

His mother laughs into the phone and Louis smiles, happy to hear the sound. He always really loved his mother’s laugh.

“Well, then, have a good lie in. Dream about Harry,” she teases, and Louis’ about to protest, he really is, but then she hangs up before he can even open his mouth. He stares down at his phone in shock. His own mother just hung up on him.

He definitely knows that Alberto is laughing at him now from the front seat. He decides not to comment on it though. His pride is too high for that. (Also, he’s embarrassed as fuck, but his pride won’t allow him to admit that of course.)

Louis sighs. He’s sick and he just wants to go home. He wants to go home to his warm bed that the paps can’t get to where he can fall asleep and forget about this mess he’s in because some people don’t like the fact that there are men in the world who like to take it up the ass or vice versa. Louis doesn’t even care.

He doesn’t have to shoot anything today, well, not that he’s aware of, which means, of course, sleep.

Maybe Louis is actually an old man stuck in a young one’s body. That’d make sense.

When he gets home, he thanks Alberto, and rushes inside, not even wanting to see any of the lingering paps he figures might be outside.

He sighs when he gets inside, almost falling against the door and sleeping right there. Instead, he wills himself to walk up to his room and collapse on his bed.

It feels lonely and cold.

◊◊◊◊

Of course it’s his fucking phone that wakes him up and he groans, reaching in his pocket blindly. His fingers wrap around it and he rolls over so he’s facing the ceiling. Not like it matters. His eyes are still closed.

“ ‘ello?” he asks, yawning.

“Shit, Lou. Did ya just wake up?” Louis recognizes Niall’s loud, Irish, annoying voice and yawns again.

“Absolutely not. I don’t know why you think that,” he retorts, yawning just to prove his point. Niall snorts, but continues on with whatever he’s saying.

“Well, I’m calling to see if this thing with Hazza is actually true. He’s not answering so I figured I’d call you as well.”

Louis rolls his eyes and tries to mask his yawn. “Niall, we’re not dating.”

“But you want to, right?” Niall responds so quickly Louis almost doubts that Niall even heard him.

“What?”

“You want to, right? I saw how you were looking at him at the party, mate! I thought you two were gonna trip over yourselves with how much you were looking at each other!”

“You’re obviously delusional right now, Niall. I’m not sure you’re in a good condition to be—”

“Oh, come off it. You want to shag him, right?” Niall cuts in loudly. Louis sighs.

“So what?” he finally admits. Niall whoops through the phone and Louis actually has to hold it away from him, afraid he’s going to break his eardrums.

“Fuckin’ knew it!” Louis hears, and he brings it back up to his ear.

“Are you done?” Louis grits out.

“Not even a little bit,” Niall says, and Louis rolls his eyes. He needs better friends. Honestly. Why the fuck does he hang out with people like Niall? Well, is there anyone else actually _like_ Niall? Basically, why is Niall his friend? Niall breaks his reverie by saying, “He wants to shag you too.”

“Okay,” Louis answers, not really caring. He’s already considered this. He knows what could happen. It’s just too much of a risk. Louis pulls up his legs against his chest and figures he should probably get out of bed. Louis stays seated, phone tucked against his ear. Niall still hasn’t responded. The twat. “Can I go now?”

Niall still doesn’t say anything. What the fuck.

For a brief moment, Louis hears some rustling sounds and wonders if Niall had gone somewhere and just came back, but then, it goes completely silent and the dial tone plays in his ear.

Louis pulls his phone away from his ear and stares down at it in confusion. Okay then.

Louis sighs and stares up at the ceiling, thinking over what Niall just told him. Yeah, of course he’s considered telling Harry how he feels, but could they handle it? Could they handle all that media attention? Could they handle all of the slurs thrown their way when they’re walking the red carpet?

Louis briefly thinks that maybe they could, but shakes his head vehemently. He doesn’t need to get his hopes up like that. He’s a smart man, and he can decide against this.

But fuck, does Louis want to shag him. And maybe they could do that. Maybe they could do the whole “friends with benefits” thing, but Louis sighs again, deciding against that too. When has any “friends with benefits” relationship ever actually worked?

Louis needs to get out of bed.

◊◊◊◊

 

“Louis! Are the rumors true?! Are you dating Harry Styles!”

“Louis, do you and Harry have threesomes with Taylor Swift?!”

“Louis, do you think homosexuality is a bad thing?!”

“Louis, come on, just one picture!”

Louis huffs and keeps walking forward, hands in his pockets. He just wants to get inside already, and for some reason, he actually thought that getting dropped off further away today would help him not get noticed by the paps. How wrong he was, of course.

He sees the set where he’s at today.

It’s set up as the studio where his character, Jean Bonnair, he finally brings in his prodigy student, Jonathan, into the studio to mentor him. Louis’ honestly looking forward to it, mainly because it’s in an air-conditioned room and he won’t have to worry about either being rained on or getting a sunburn.

Honestly, some of the places where he’s had to shoot have been ridiculous. He once had to fly out to Brazil just for one scene that, of course, took about five hours to shoot, and he got a nasty sunburn. It was fucking awful it was.

He finally gets inside, continuing to ignore the paparazzi’s rude, shouted questions and is immediately greeted with Paula, the set manager.

“Ah! Louis! Good to see you made it on time. The paparazzi being even more irritating than usual today?”

Louis smiles at her and rolls his eyes. “Of course they are. With all the rumors surrounding me and Harry, it’s a madhouse out there.”

She gives a sympathetic grimace and nods. “Yes, well, luckily, in here, you won’t have to deal with any of that. Come along now. I need to show you around. I trust you’ve memorized your lines to perfection?”

“Of course, Paula. When have I not?” he asks, already knowing what she’ll bring up.

“Well, there was that tim—”

"Yes, yes, the time where I started reciting lines from _Romeo and Juliet_. Trust me, I won’t ever forget that,” he cuts in, laughing. She laughs as well and shows him around, instructing him of where he should stand and what things are easily breakable and what isn’t and so on and so on.

"I’m sure it’ll be a good shoot today. Oh, it seems Tommy’s here,” she says, motioning to Tommy and his mother walking in. His mother (Carol?) smiles and nods at him as Tommy’s eyes light up from taking in the giant set. Louis laughs to himself. He’s always enjoyed the sets they’ve been on.

He turns back to Paula when Ben comes in and yells for everyone to get in position. “Well, it seems I’ve got to go. Talk soon, yeah?”

“Of course, Louis,” she smiles, before turning around and heading off, heels clacking loudly against the floor.

Louis gets in position, game face on.

He tries not to think of Harry and the swarm of paps waiting outside for him.

◊◊◊◊

 

Louis doesn’t get to go home and rest like he so badly wants to, but instead, is taken right to another scene he has to shoot for _Push the Limits_ , the action-comedy he was almost done working with. This scene today was one of his last scenes to shoot.

It’s not like he’s one of the main characters in this one. It just sounded fun at the time, but now, he’s seriously considering smacking his past self right on the head for saying ‘yes’ to it.

He’s working until it’s almost one in the morning, and when he finally manages to drag himself home, he immediately collapses on his bed, feeling a buzz in his pocket, but not caring as he drifts off into a blissful sleep.

 

◊◊◊◊

 

Louis wakes up at seven-thirty in the morning to the loud shrill of Cyndi Lauper going off. Okay. So, Harry’s calling him? Why?

"Harry?” he answers sleepily, blinking in the sunrise outside his window. It’s quite pretty today.

"Louis, shit, I woke you up. Sorry. Should’ve figured that you weren’t a morning person,” Harry says, voice loud and everything Harry. Louis smiles sleepily into his pillow.

"I’m guessing you are then?” he asks.

Harry laughs. “Of course. I just got back from a run actually.”

Louis groans. “Of course you did. How utterly like you, you health geek.”

“Who still uses the word ‘geek’?”

“Uhm, me? Are you complaining?”

Harry laughs again and Louis sort of wants to go to sleep to that sound. He sits up, and rubs a hand through his hair, yawning loudly. Harry laughs again at that. The twat.

“I’m actually calling for business matters,” Harry finally says after he manages to stop laughing at Louis’ misfortune. Louis blinks.

“Hm? What business matters?”

"Apparently, our managements spoke—”

" _Great_ ,” Louis groans.

"Yeah, and they want us both to go on a double date with girls.”

“They want what now?”

"You. Me. Double date. Two girls.”

“Oh, so they want to spread the image of two lesbians around as well? This is definitely a different approach,” Louis teases through the phone. Harry groans.

“Louis, I swear. But apparently, you’re pissed at your management right now so they thought me calling you would be better. Is this…okay, Lou?”

Louis sighs. Of course it isn’t okay. Of course anything with hiding his sexuality isn’t okay even though technically, he did sign to it when he first got them as his management. He just should have read the fine print. But he gets to hang out with Harry, and well, that’s always good.

"Yeah, it’s fine. I expected worse to be honest. When?”

“Today. At noon. That good?” Harry asks.

“Yeah, yeah. Wine me and dine me, Styles,” he says, and Harry laughs again.

"And also two models,” Harry quips in, laughter in his voice. Louis hates him.

"Hey! No ruining the moment!” Louis protests. “Honestly,” he huffs.

"There was a moment?” Harry asks, and if not for the teasing tone, Louis would’ve maybe taken him seriously.

"Of course there was, Styles. Any moment with me is a moment,” Louis states, and right on cue, Harry’s laughter fills his ear.

"Whatever you say, Lou. By the way, we’re meeting at The Ivy. You know it, right?”

"Of course I do, Haz. See you there at noon?”

"Yeah, but I think you need to stop by your management’s building to pick up the model. What’s her name again…Kendall?”

Louis has no idea. Probably. “Yeah, sure, maybe. See you at noon, Haz.”

"See you at noon, Lou,” Harry responds, and Louis yawns just as he cuts off.

Louis thinks about how he should get up and do things that could be considered productive, but instead, he lies back down, sets an alarm for 10:30, and goes back to sleep. Whatever. He’s a celebrity. He can do that.

 

◊◊◊◊

 

Kendall’s the kind of girl Louis tries to avoid at celebrity events. Not because she’s incredibly mean or anything, but because she doesn’t ever shut up and loves talking about herself at any given moment.

Which. Well, that’s quite annoying.

He barely says more than a sentence in the ride with her to The Ivy since she takes up enough breath talking for his entire family, and it’s not like his family is small. When they get there, Louis decides that he’s already learned way too much about this model and would rather go home and take Harry with him so they could watch a funny comedy together or something. He doesn’t know. Just anything else really.

Paparazzi are waiting for him, just as planned, and he smiles brightly, taking Kendall’s hand and helping her out. Her hand is sweaty and Louis has to restrain himself from changing his smile to a grimace and pulling away all together. Louis lives such a hard life.

They both ignore the pap’s shouts as they make their way in, catching sight of Harry and whatever the model he has latched on his arm is named. He’s led to them and Loui hugs the girl with him just so he can hug Harry as well. Harry feels warm and pliant in his hands and Louis wants to scream from how much he wants to take Harry home.

“Hey,” Harry says, as they sit across from each other. Kendall’s introducing herself before he can even say anything of course (because Kendall’s like that), and Harry, being the absolute angel he is, goes along with it and smiles at her and everything. Louis wants to kiss him.

The waiter comes by and takes their drink order, and Louis just asks for tea, while Harry asks for water. Louis doesn’t even pay attention to what Kendall and the blonde across from him order. As the waiter walks away, the blonde turns her attention onto Louis, her arm still attached to Harry’s.

She smiles, and Louis just frowns at her. “I’m Nadine,” she says, smiling even wider. Louis nods.

"Louis,” he replies vaguely, and she just laughs.

"Of course you are. I love your movies by the way,” she exclaims excitedly and Louis can’t help but let out a smile at that. He loves all of his fans.

"Thank you. So, are you a model like Kendall?” he asks.

She nods. “Yeah, I am. Actually, Kendall and I have both walked on the same runways a few times before, isn’t that right, Kendall?”

Kendall nods, looking overly excited that the attention is now on her. Louis tries to dismiss the fact that Kendall immediately latches onto Louis’ arm just as Nadine is doing to Harry. Kendall replies, but Louis’ too busying catching the gaze of Harry to listen to what she says.

Louis smiles at him and Harry smiles back, dimples popping out beautifully.

"How’ve you been, Harry?” he asks, and Harry laughs.

“Good, Lou. You? It’s been such a long time since I’ve talked to you,” Harry deadpans, and yeah, yeah, Louis laughs at that too.

"Yeah, it has, hasn’t it? Almost two years now, right?” he says, lifting an eyebrow. Harry nods eagerly, going along with it.

"Yeah, the last time I saw you was in the war, wasn’t it?” Harry asks, a shit-eating grin on his face. Louis grins as well and leans forward, leaning his chin in his hands.

"Yeah, mate. Didn’t you get your arm blown off or summat?” he asks, and Harry’s eyes are twinkling with mirth now, and he opens his mouth about to respond, but then Kendall breaks in.

"What are you talking about? You two were in a war?” she asks, eyes wide and confused. Nadine is laughing behind her palm as she looks at all of them, and Louis respects her a little more. Kendall, however….

Harry responds for him. “Oh yes. Two years ago. I served for a bit, as did Louis here. We met there, and a natural friendship grew from there,” Harry says as seriously as he can. Kendall looks even more confused and flicks her gaze to Louis, who’s trying his best not to fall to the floor and break into laughter.

"Bu—” she begins, but Louis cuts her off.

"I don’t like to talk about it. Can we please change the topic?” he asks, his acting skills coming into play. Kendall just looks freaked out and Louis can actually die from how much laughter he’s holding back right now.

Harry breaks though and although Louis wants to hit him for breaking the scene, he also wants to make out with him.

The waiter is back again, ready to take their orders for their food, and Kendall orders a salad or something, while Nadine orders some steak meal. Harry orders fish and a salad, and Louis just goes with the first thing he sees, which is an American bacon cheeseburger. Well, that’ll be fun.

He looks back up at Harry, who’s looking at him, and smiles. He can’t stop smiling around Harry. Everything about Harry makes him want to smile and looking at him like this can almost make him believe that they are on a date, the paps taking pictures of just the two of them, and that their romance can take on the world.

Louis’ been in enough movies to know that’s something that stays in movies.

Reality isn’t like that.

Reality is blinding flashes and mobs and sometimes camping out at a place because there are so many people outside climbing on top of each other just to get an HD photo. Reality is not being able to go out in public without his little sisters being harassed by someone or not being able to buy himself some food without getting offered help or getting rewarded with praise.

Fantasy is getting to hold Harry’s hand throughout all of it. Fantasy is getting to go to the park with his little sisters and not get bothered by anyone. Fantasy is getting to take his mother out for her birthday and not have a camera shoved in her face. That’s fantasy. That’s a normal life, and sometimes, Louis just doesn’t think the fame was worth it.

He focuses back on Harry and his curls and his kind, green eyes and smiles once more. He briefly wonders what Harry’s opinion would be.

Probably similar.

Louis just studies his hands.

 

◊◊◊◊

The date goes by smoothly, and Louis offers Harry a chance to hang out with him at his house in private, away from the girls’ ears. Harry agrees easily, and they agree to meet up at Louis’ house at four. Harry just has to make sure he’s not seen by anybody, and when Louis tells him that, he’s answered with a mysterious “don’t worry, no one will see me”, which…okay.

Louis gets back to his house around 3:20, and is happy that he doesn’t have any scenes to shoot today. Tomorrow, a whole lot. Today, nothing at all except happy times.

He lounges on his couch, switching back and forth between channels until he hears Harry knocking at his door. Louis grins and gets up, excitedly moving toward the door. Whatever. He has a crush. Sue him.

Harry looks like a fucking supermodel when he finally opens the door. Of course, he’s still wearing the same things, but just the fact that he’s standing on Louis’ doorstep with the largest grin on his face makes him all the more attractive.

"Why, Harry my friend! Come into my humble abode!” Louis greets loudly and Harry snorts as he walks in.

"Hey again, Louis Tomlinson,” Harry smirks, already making himself at home as he snuggles deep into Louis’ couch. “This couch is comfortable by the way.”

Louis nods. “Yeah, it really is. Me mum bought it for me.”

Harry raises an eyebrow. “Did she now? I may have to ask her for a couch as well.” Louis laughs and sits down next to him, pushing him slightly.

"Oh, budge off. You’d have to get to actually know my mum before she’d do that for you,” he says.

"I’ve been told I’m a very charming gentleman,” Harry informs him. Louis rolls his eyes.

"More like a charming twat who can’t say enough bad jokes apparently,” Louis mutters. Harry shoves him in response with a loud, “Heyyyy”. Louis laughs again.

"So, what are we watching today?”

“ _Mean Girls_ ,” Louis responds. “And then _Spiderman_.”

"Okay. So two very different movies. I’m cool with that,” Harry says nodding.

Louis rolls his eyes. “We’d watch them even if you weren’t, ya know.”

Harry pouts and crosses his arms. “You know, you’re quite mean, Louis.”

"Yup,” is all Louis responds with as he gets up to put in the first movie. He’s bending over, searching through his many movies when Harry says it.

"But you have an amazing bum so it’s okay.” Louis then, quite literally, falls to the ground at that moment.

"W-what?!” he sputters out, wide-eyed as he looks at Harry, who’s only smirking at him from the couch. The little green-eyed fucker.

"I said, it’s okay that you’re mean because you have a nice bum to make up for it,” Harry repeats, enunciating each word clearly. Louis is still staring at him, shocked and confused.

Louis’ red and Harry’s flirting with him and Louis doesn’t know what to say back. Should he flirt back? Should he ignore him? Should he just say something stupid? What the fuck should he do?

"Hey, stop looking at my bum, you pervert. You can only look at my bum when I tell you you can,” is what Louis ends up saying and just…what?

Harry smiles. “Can I look at your bum, Lou?”

Louis says, “Yes” before he can even consider it. What the fuck is wrong with him. Harry smirks and continues to look and Louis just blushes harder, going back to searching for the damn movie. He finally finds it and quickly puts it in before getting back up and returning to his spot next to Harry.

Harry acts like he didn’t just ask to ogle Louis’ bum and Louis doesn’t really know how to react. He doesn’t have a script to read or a line to say and honestly, he’s just stumped as to what to say.

So he doesn’t say anything.

And lets the movie play on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know. They're idiots. *le sigh*
> 
> anyway, there's that.
> 
> tumblr- iwannapandanamedchubs
> 
> twitter- @dianna_morales
> 
> larry twitter- @larryfreakouts


	6. chapter six

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well the first thing I want to say iS HOW UTTERLY SORRY I AM. 
> 
> So, here's the dealio. My computer fucking broke. Yes. Broke. And I had already written more than half of this chapter and hadn't saved it to anything at all except the stupid computer. Including other stories. 
> 
> But then I found out that there was a way that I could possibly get everything off of the computer so I had to wait literally fucking forever and then when I FINALLY got everything off (much to my relief and tears) I was so unmotivated because I had to type out everything again so I decided to just write the chapter from scratch but it sucked and I was so fucking frustrated and just UGHHH. Plus I've been sooo busy and bASICALLY IT IS GODSEND THAT THIS CHAP EXISTS AT ALL. 
> 
> okay. well enjoy this ridiculous chapter of this ridiculous story.
> 
> p.s. it was weird writing zayn as a part of one direction like?? idk it felt strange and it was kind of sad. 
> 
> p.p.s. i suck

**◊ chapter six ◊**

 

 

“Don’t you _dare_ talk about him like that! You don’t know half the shit that boy has been through and when he came in here with that gift of his, I felt _honored_ to be able to teach him. So if I hear another ugly word come out of that mouth of yours’ I’ll tell _everyone_ and completely _ruin_ you, comprendre?”

"I’m very sorry, Mons—”

“Just leave me,” Louis snaps, ending the scene as he holds the bridge of his nose and lets out a deep sigh. He stays like that until Jonah has walked off and waits for Ben.

“Cut! That’s a break for today!” Ben announces. Louis immediately lets go of his nose and lets out a big smile.

"Good job, Louis. Actually had me scared of you for a minute there,” Jonah says in his French accent when Louis walks over to his dressing room. Louis smiles at him.

"You did well also, Jonah. Feel good about that,” Louis says before entering the room. He’s only a little surprised to see Lou there. “Well, hello, Lou,” he greets as he sits down. Lou rolls her eyes.

"You do know what you have to do in less than an hour, right?”

"Let me guess…a date?”

Lou sighs, but nods slowly. “Yeah. Luckily, I’ve managed to convince the team that this’ll be the last date with Kendall. We’ll break it off with here and you’ll be able to have some free time for a while unless you decide to go off and make out with Harry Styles in public or something. You…you won’t do that, right, Louis?”

Louis laughs. “I’ll try my best not to. It should be easy considering how he’s leaving for tour again soon.” Louis tries not to let the disappointment shine through, but Lou catches it anyway.

"How are you feeling about that by the way?”

Louis shrugs. “It is what it is.” Louis doesn’t let up with the pity face so Louis has to let out another awkward laugh and say, “Honestly, Lou, I’m fine. It’s not like i’m going to suddenly stop talking to him when he goes off. He’s my best mate and the internet does exist, ya know.”

She rolls her eyes again but accept the answer anyway. Standing up, she reaches behind her and reaches down into her briefcase and pulls out a large packet. Louis doesn’t know what it is so he makes no move to ask. It might not even be for him.

“Louis, I’m about to show you something that I’ve been begging to get for a while now.”

Louis raises an eyebrow. “What is it?”

“It’s a contract,” is all she says.

“Okay? For what?”

Lou takes a deep breath and smiles. “Coming out.”

Louis thinks he could’ve heard a pin drop from five miles away. “A what now?” he asks, needing clarification because did he really just hear that. Lou smiles wider.

“Now, it’s a pretty strict contract and you’ll really have to read over it and the process it going to take a long while, but yeah, Louis. I got your coming out contract.”

“How long?” Louis asks, not even trying to hold back the smile that’s graced his face.

“The soonest would be two years, Louis. I’m sorry. That’s the best I could get. Although, honestly, if you keep being a major idiot in public with your little pop star crush, it could be a year and a half, maybe even a year. It seems management really doesn’t appreciate picking up your messes,” she smiles. Louis leaps upward and tugs her into his arms, hugging her tightly.

“Lou, you’re a literal angel. Thank you so much. Really.”

She rolls her eyes fondly. “You’ll be late for your date if you don’t leave soon, you know.”

Louis laughs and pulls away. “Point made, I suppose. I’ll be off then. Thank you so much! Love you!”

◊◊◊◊

“So how long is your tour?” Louis asks, sprawled out on Harry’s couch as Harry cooks them something that he refuses to tell Louis because he’s a little shit.

“About seven months,” Harry replies all nonchalantly.

“Seven months?” Louis asks because well, that’s a long fucking time.

Harry bites his lip and nods again. “Yeah. It’s a world tour and we wanted to hit some spots we don’t usually.”

“Still. Seven months? Mate, that’s a long time.”

Harry shrugs.

“Last year it was almost eight,” is all he says. Before Louis can respond, the timer goes off in the kitchen and Harry’s springing up and bounding off to check on their mystery food.

“Is it ready?” Louis calls out hopefully and he hears Harry laugh.

“Lou, you know we still have two hours before it will be. Calm down,” Harry says, walking back into the room.

Louis both glares and pouts. “Honestly, Harold, you can’t just call me and tell me you’re cooking us dinner and then tell me when I get here that there’s still three hours to go before it’s ready.”

Harry laughs. “You’re the one who called me by the way! What is it you wanted to tell me anyway? You still haven’t told me, you dick,” he says, shoving Louis as he plops right down next to him.

Louis sniffs and looks away. “Well, I was going to tell you over a nice, home-cooked meal, but it’s not ready yet. _Apparently._ ”

Harry rolls his eyes. “You’re so dramatic. Honestly.”

“I am an actor, Harry Styles! What did you expect?”

“Some dignity,” Harry responds, smirking. Louis glares at him.

“You’re mean,” Louis states, crossing his arms. Harry laughs and pulls him so Louis is pressed up against this chest. Louis hates himself.

“Aw, come on, Lou. What were you going to tell me?”

Fuck waiting.

“I got a coming out contract,” Louis says and it seems to take a moment for Harry to process it, but when he does he’s hugging Louis even closer to him and laughing.

“That’s so great, Louis! That’s fantastic! How’d you convince them? What does it state?”

Louis smiles against Harry’s chest. He’s so warm. “Well, Lou actually convinced them. And it’s not the best one, but I should be out before two years.”

Harry pulls back then, a small frown on his face. “Two years? Is that okay?”

Louis smiles widely. “It’s great, Haz. I’m totally and perfectly happy with it and I’m so fucking happy that it’s like a _plan_ now. It’s no longer just me talking about it or bringing it up to complain about it during meetings. It’s a plan and I couldn’t be happier,” he says sincerely and Harry nods again, pulling him back into the hug.

“I’m happy for you, Lou,” Harry mumbles into his hair and Louis squeezes him back in response.

He couldn’t be happier for him as well.

◊◊◊◊

Louis hates interviews. Loathes them. Detests them. Hates the fact that he already knows the questions coming and the answers he’s expected to give. Hates the fact that the lady interviewing him has been winking at him for the past ten minutes as if she expects them to have sex in the backroom or something.

He sits on the uncomfortable couch and places his hands in his lap, doing his best to keep the irritation out of his face. This interview is about his overall life and his upcoming movies. Why it has to be just an interview about him, he doesn’t know, but here he is anyway. He sees Lou talking to the makeup coordinator and wishes he was over there too just so he wouldn’t be here.

Watching the cameraman set up, the interviewer comes over and shakes his hand, fluttering her eyelashes at him.

“I’m Sabrina,” she smiles flirtatiously.

He gives a fake smile and responds, “Louis. Glad to be here today.”

She laughs, loud and shrilling and Louis wants to go home. “Are you? I’m sure you have many interviews,” she says, laughing as if the thought of Louis even being here is the most laughable thing on the planet.

He just keeps the fake smile plastered on his face. _Media training_ , Louis. It does wonders. “Well, not as many lately. Glad to see a change in scenery rather than the inside of my house,” he jokes.

She laughs as if it’s the most hilarious thing she’s ever heard. “Well, I’d sure love to see the inside of your house.” Then, she winks and Louis just wants to get out of here.

He looks over to the cameraman, hoping that they’ll start soon.

 _It seems dreams do happen after all_ , Louis thinks when the cameraman announces he’s ready.

Sabrina smiles and hands Louis a microphone.

“And we’re ready! Start whenever!” the cameraman announces.

"Hello, my name is Sabrina Stewart and I’m here with world-famous actor, Louis Tomlinson. Louis, thanks for being with us today. How are you?”

Expected. Louis smiles and looks at the camera and then at her. “I’m good, Sabrina. It’s nice to be here.”

“Well, let’s get straight to it, shall we? So, your fans wanted to see you perform a little game. Do you think you’re up for it?” she asks slyly. This is unexpected. He hasn’t heard of him playing a game on this interview. But he can’t say ‘no’.

“Of course I’m up for it!” he states, raising his fist in the air because he’s a dork. Ugh, why did he do that.

Sabrina laughs again and pulls out cards from underneath her chair. How did Louis not notice that.

“Well, we’re playing a word association game. Nothing too hard. I’ll just say a word, phrase, or memory of some sort and you’ll say the first word that comes to mind. The goal is to get as many different things said before your time runs out. You’ll get 70 seconds. You ready?”

No. “Yes.”

“We’ll start now! Beach!”

“Loud.”

“Jennifer Aniston!”

“Funny.”

“Bears.”

“Fluffy!”

“ _Losing Suns_!”

 “Incredible, and you should definitely go see it when it comes out!” Louis laughs, winking at the camera. Sabrina laughs and quickly moves on.

“Cupcakes,” she says.

“My sisters!”

“Rainbows!”

“Cool.”

“Johnny Depp!”

“Phenomenal.”

“Oscars!”

“I spilt wine on my pants!”

“You did?”

“Yes, it was awful,” Louis says solemnly. He thinks he’s doing pretty well.

“France,” she says, quickly going on.

“Magnificent.”

"Harry Styles!”

“Cute!”

Wait.

What.

Before Louis can process what he just said, Sabrina says the next thing.

“Hotels.”

"Nice staff….”

“Vodka.”

“Mum’s favorite,” Louis laughs awkwardly, still trying not to think about what he said about Harry. How much longer?

“Ahh! We’re almost out of time! Favorite place?”

“Comfy couches,” Louis says, and honestly? Really? Louis thinks back on yesterday, him and Harry on the couch cuddling while eating amazing Italian food watching the Indiana Jones movies. Yes, couches would be his favorite.

A timer goes off and Sabrina laughs wickedly.

"Well, that was fun, wasn’t it?”

Louis nods. “Yes. I quite liked that.” No, he didn’t. He exposed too much. Too much pressure in too little time, what else was supposed to happen. He just called Harry Styles ‘cute’ on camera. Why does he do this to himself?

Sabrina laughs again and Louis briefly wonders if it’s her real laugh. “You said some interesting responses, didn’t you, Louis?”

“Did I?” Louis asks, voice strained. He wants to get out of here and he can see Lou furiously talking to someone behind the cameraman.

Sabrina smiles again. “Indeed. So you spilt wine on your pants at the Oscars?”

Louis nods. “Yes, indeed. Luckily, it was after the awards, but I didn’t get to go to the after party because well, I couldn’t just go with wine spilt all over meself, could I?”

Sabrina smiles. “And comfy couches are your favorite place?”

Shit.

Louis nods again. “Have you ever been on one? They’re heavenly.”

Sabrina tilts her head as if she is really considering it and nods briefly. “Yes, I suppose they are quite comfortable.”

“And Harry Styles is ‘cute’ then?” she continues, getting straight to the point Louis knows she’s wanted to make as soon as he responded. He wants to leave.

“I can’t say he isn’t,” he laughs. “His fans would eat me alive!”

“You could’ve easily had just said that he was nice or funny,” Sabrina points out, smirking a bit, because she is actually a bitch, apparently.

“Too generic for Harry Styles, don’t you think?”

“You called Jennifer Aniston ‘funny’. So she’s generic now?”

What the hell is this lady’s problem?

“No, of course not. Jen’s a great lady, actually. But I already used that word. Didn’t want to seem boring and use it again, did I? Harry is quite funny though.”

Shut up shut up shut up.

Sabrina leans forward a bit, seemingly fascinated. “He is, is he? You would know, right? You know, Louis. There’s been some rumors about you lately.”

Louis can’t wait for his management to give this lady hell. “Oh, have there? There’s always rumors! I’ve been dead a few times, ya know?”

She just nods, completely ignoring him, which…rude. “These rumors are a little more specific than that though, aren’t they? They say you two are dating!”

Louis wishes that was true. “We aren’t dating.”

“So why is everyone is determined to think it’s true? Your fans are interesting, aren’t they? They even call you ‘Larry Stylinson’! Is there anything you think about that?”

“How’s this, Larry is the biggest load of bullshit I’ve ever heard. Is that enough?”

Louis wants to die.

Sabrina audibly gasps and sputters on the next thing she says. “Oh. Okay. Well, let’s talk about your next couple of movies. You have three coming out, right?”

Louis feels his phone buzz over and over and over and over again and he just wants to go home and get underneath the covers.

◊◊◊◊

Of course, the first call he answers is Mark telling him how great his response was to that question, and well…if Mark thinks it’s a great answer then he really did come off as a homophobic twat, didn’t he?

He sighs and leans back against the bench he’s currently seated on. He’s in his favorite park. It’s a quaint little area that no one ever comes to so Louis can actually get some peace and quite for once. Although, his phone isn’t really helping with that. It keeps blinking incessantly and he knows he should just turn it off, but he’s always worried he’ll miss an important call. Someone died, a war started, Harry hates him…anything at all.

Louis sighs again.

He really isn’t helping himself.

Leaning his head back, he studies the sky. It’s about two in the afternoon and Harry’s leaving so very soon and just made himself look like a dick on a live interview.

He sighs again because honestly why the fuck not he can sigh as much as he damn wants.

He sits back up and pulls out his phone, opening Twitter. He goes to his mentions and goes to those who he doesn’t follow.

His name is even trending worldwide. How great.

The reactions are varied to say the least.

Louis smiles when he reads the last one, glad to see that he has at least one fan who doesn’t mind that he’s gay. And is actually observant about how flamboyant Louis is. He wants to favorite it, but after that interview, he knows it’s way too risky.

Fuck.

He stands up and stretches, tucking his phone back into his pocket wanting to officially ignore that for a long while.

He walks home.

◊◊◊◊

Harry texts him, of course. He doesn’t mention any of it. He just texts him ‘funny’ jokes and sends him pictures of the fruit at the Tesco he’s currently buying from.

Louis doesn’t know how to respond.

So when he gets a text saying that One Direction have an interview tomorrow on some show Louis has vaguely heard of, Louis sends back a smiley face and goes to bed, planning on staying home tomorrow and watching the interview on his giant ass television.

Louis wants to go to sleep.

So, he does.

◊◊◊◊

“Congrats, boys, on your latest album. I’ve heard it myself and it’s very good. Was it mainly written by all of you?”

It’s Liam who responds. “Yeah, we’re happy this time ‘round because we all got to work on it together. It was a good time for all of us, and we all have our own songwriting techniques. It’s nice to be able to come together and share our ideas and choose the songs ourselves, you know? Now that we have more experience in the business and everything.” Zayn and Harry are nodding along and Louis watches Harry, entranced.

“It’s definitely been a fun ride,” Harry adds.

“So, are you boys excited for your upcoming tour?”

“Yes, we are incredibly excited. We’ll be stopping by places we haven’t been before because we’re trying our best to give everyone the chance to a concert,” Liam says.

“But isn’t your tour shorter than usual, boys?”

“We’re traveling more quickly, you could say,” Liam continues. The interviewer just nods thoughtfully and turns to Harry and Zayn.

“What about you two? Anything you might miss when you’re on tour?”

"I’m going to miss home and my family. It’s always nice to just relax at home with some chilling tunes on,” Zayn responds quietly.

“I’m actually going to miss a few people I’ve recently met, and my family of course. Also, trips to Tesco will probably be missed as well. I was just there last night, in fact,” Harry smiles and Louis does too. He was indeed.

“You went to a Tesco last night?” the interviewer asks.

Harry laughs. “Yes. I hadn’t been in a while and was in desperate need of some bananas. After a while, I stayed purely out of my enjoyment of tormenting others,” Harry says, looking straight at the camera for the last bit. Louis hates him.

The interviewer and the boys seem confused. “Your enjoyment of tormenting others? What’s that supposed to mean, Harry?” Liam laughs.

“Oh, nothing. I may or may not have been sending a good friend of mine fruit puns to cheer him up,” Harry says vaguely although Louis knows that just that last bit will have the fans reeling.

"Who were you trying to cheer up?” the interviewer asks, seeming to actually be curious.

“Oh, just someone close to me,” is all Harry says. Louis wonders if he’ll get even ten percent of the shit his own management would’ve given him if he said this from his management. Probably not.

Louis wants to hug him.

He watches as Liam and Zayn throw Harry knowing looks and he smirks, glad that they caught on.

The interviewer seems a little lost now and seems to be trying to come up with questions.

“Oh yes! The fans wanted me to ask you some questions. These are questions from fans. Okay, here we are,” the interviewer says pulling out a piece of paper from their pocket. “Okay, this is for Liam. Do you style your hair on days you don’t have to go anywhere or do anything?”

Liam laughs. “Interesting question. Not normally, no. Although, if I go out at all that day then I will. It doesn’t take long, really. I don’t even know how our hair stylists manage to take up so much time doing our hair!”

“Harry, are you a good cook?”

 _Yes_ , Louis thinks, grinning widely. “According to people I’ve cooked for, yes, I am,” Harry responds, blushing a bit. Louis loves him.

“Zayn, are there any rumors you hate hearing?”

Zayn thinks for a moment and sighs. “Well, it’s pretty shit when people call me a terrorist. But I also don’t like hearing rumors about my family. They don’t need to be involved in press stuff.”

“I’m sorry that people call you that, Zayn,” the interviewer says sadly. Louis decides he kind of likes the interviewer.

“Harry, is Louis Tomlinson homophobic? Wait, Louis Tomlinson as in the actor?” the interviewer asks, looking around. Wow. Clueless. “You’re friends with Louis Tomlinson! He’s my favorite actor!”

Harry smiles so wide that his dimples pop out. “No, Louis is most definitely not homophobic and yes, he’s a pretty decent actor. He’s such a drama queen though, you should see him!”

That’s it. Louis doesn’t love him anymore.

The interviewer looks so interested though. “Is he really? Like in a good way or a bad way?”

Harry laughs. “A good way. I mean, he just likes to be a little shit—shit, whoops, ugh, am I allowed to curse on here sorry—anyway, yeah, he’s super stubborn and sweet though. I forgot what I was saying, not going to lie,” Harry smiles, dimples so deep Louis wants to get lost in them. The interviewer chuckles and nods, fascinated.

“Honestly, it’s cool that you’re friends with him! Anyway, back to the questions sorry. I don’t usually stray too much off topic. Can we call him? Oh jesus, did I just say that out loud? Ignore me. Zayn, what’s your favorite restaurant?” Louis is actually laughing by now. Harry is too.

“I can call him if you’d like. I’m sure he’s watching,” Harry giggles, and the interviewer has paled significantly.

"He’s watching?” he asks, horrified and Louis loves this guy. He definitely needs to get Lou to schedule an interview with him.

“I’m actually not sure. But I can call him. Is that allowed?”

 “Oh, even if it wasn’t, I’d make you do it! Please do it!” All of them are laughing now and Harry sighs as he takes out his phone. Louis suddenly realizes what’s happening. Shit. Where’s his phone?

On the table. Right.

And there goes Cyndi Lauper.

“Hello, Harold,” Louis answers almost immediately, watching the reactions on the television. Harry lets out a large grin and the interviewer seems to be hyperventilating.

“You’re watching, aren’t you?”

“Most definitely,” Louis responds, laughing a bit. “Tell the interviewer that I think he’s very funny.” Of course, he’s on speaker and knows that the bloke heard him, but he doesn’t even know his name sooo. “Hey, Zayn. Hey, Liam.”

“Hi, Louis!” they respond in unison.

“Is there anything that you wanted to tell Louis, Carl?”

Okay, so apparently the bloke’s name is Carl.

“Is ‘I love you’ appropriate?” Carl asks, red all over. Louis thinks it’s fucking adorable. Also, Harry. Harry is very much adorable as well.

“Well, I love you too,” Louis responds casually, knowing full well that even saying those three words to another man will have his management in an outrage.

The man brings a hand up to his chest and gasps after Louis says that. “I can’t believe! I can’t believe Louis Tomlinson just uttered those words! Can we get married?”

“Yeah, sure, when’s the date, Carl?”

“Does tomorrow work?” Carl responds immediately.

“What about today?” Louis laughs.

“Heyyyy, ‘M getting jealous over here!” Harry pouts.

“Aw, sorry, Hazza. Did you want to be invited to our wedding?”

“What about us, Louis? We invited?” Zayn asks, smirking.

“Of course you are!”

Carl is still pretending to be crying, clutching at his chest in such a dramatic manner that rivals even Louis’s.

Louis laughs. “I need to be off now. I’ll let you get back to your interview. I’ll see you tomorrow, Carl! At our wedding!”

"You better, Louis Tomlinson!” he laughs, still blushing like mad.

“See you, boys. Bye, Haz,” Louis says, fond all over his face and voice. God, he hates himself.

“See you, Lou!”

Louis hangs up.

Almost immediately, he receives a text.

**from: Mark**

**come into the office immediately**

Shit.

Just as he’s getting up to grab his shit, he receives another text. It’s from Harry.

_Can we talk?? xxx_

**When?**

_After the interview. So 30? I’ll be at your house? Is that okay?_

**Sounds good. x**

Louis sits back down.

Mark can wait.

Although, shit. What does Harry want to possibly talk about?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll try to update as soon as I can.  
> all the love

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah, Louis's not dumb. He can figure out that he likes Harry pretty quickly because fuck, who wouldn't tbh? Comments are love. First chapter sucks. It will get better :)


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